Daytona Beach or Memphis?

This is the widest gap between the two. Daytona Beach is built around about 37km of hard, flat sand where cars can drive on marked stretches. The beach is busiest by the pier and quieter at Ormond Beach and Ponce Inlet, and New Smyrna Beach to the south has steady surf. The water is greenish and choppy, and rip currents mean swimming near lifeguards.

Memphis sits far inland on the Mississippi, a working river full of barges where nobody swims. In summer, cooling off means a hotel pool or a drive out to a country lake.

Memphis is the place to eat. Its barbecue is a style of its own: pork as dry-rubbed ribs or pulled shoulder, barbecue spaghetti, and smokehouses ranging from neighbourhood pits to big downtown dining rooms. On top of that come fried chicken, catfish and Delta tamales, with Cooper-Young adding craft breweries and modern Southern cooking.

Daytona's best meals are fried shrimp, grouper sandwiches and smoked fish dip, eaten on the decks of fish camps along the Halifax River or near Ponce Inlet. Away from the water, chain restaurants take over, and neither city offers much fine dining.

Memphis has far more to see. Graceland, the tiny Sun Studio and the Stax Museum in Soulsville tell the story of American popular music. The National Civil Rights Museum, built around the Lorraine Motel, is one of the most moving museums in the country. The historic streets are patchy, but these few museums easily fill several days.

Daytona's sights centre on speed: a tour of the Speedway, home of the Daytona 500, and the long history of land-speed records set on the beach. Add the Cuban art at the Museum of Arts and Sciences and a climb up the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse, and most visitors have seen the town in a day or two.

Memphis gives you more nights out. Beale Street closes to traffic at weekends and stays loud and late, with drinks carried from bar to bar, and locals head to Overton Square and the dive bars and beer gardens of Cooper-Young for a calmer evening.

Daytona's nightlife depends on the calendar. During Bike Week, Biketoberfest and race weeks, the biker saloons on Main Street spill onto the street. The rest of the year it comes down to sunset drinks at tiki bars and hotel lounges. Neither city has much club culture.

Daytona has the richer wild country close by. Canaveral National Seashore protects empty dunes and the Mosquito Lagoon, where you can kayak among dolphins. The Merritt Island refuge is prime birding land, and in winter manatees gather at Blue Spring.

Memphis has its river and its parks instead. You can walk or cycle the Big River Crossing into Arkansas, see the bison herd and lakes at the huge Shelby Farms Park, and walk through the old-growth forest in Overton Park. Both places are flat, and both are best outdoors early in the day in summer.

Daytona has the broader choice of outings. St Augustine, with its Spanish fort and narrow old streets, is about an hour north, and Kennedy Space Center and Orlando's theme parks are each about an hour away. New Smyrna Beach and DeLand make shorter outings.

From Memphis, the trips follow one theme: Highway 61 south into the Delta to Clarksdale's juke joints and the Blues Trail markers, Faulkner's house in Oxford, Elvis's birthplace in Tupelo, and the Shiloh battlefield. They are rewarding for music and history lovers but less varied, and both cities need a car for every one of them.

Daytona is easier with children. There is room to spread out on the flat sand, arcades and ice cream along the boardwalk, a water park and mini-golf for a change of pace, and condo rentals with kitchens and pools. Orlando's theme parks are an hour away. Keep children close to the lifeguards because of the rip currents, and avoid event weeks.

Memphis has a fine zoo in Overton Park, the Children's Museum, the Pink Palace planetarium and the daily march of the ducks at the Peabody. But its headline music and civil rights museums suit teenagers better than young children, and every outing means a drive.

You will want a car in both, but Memphis has the edge thanks to a walkable downtown. Beale Street, the riverfront, the Civil Rights Museum and the South Main arts district are close together and linked by heritage trolleys, though Graceland, Midtown and Shelby Farms are a drive away.

Daytona spreads along long roads on both sides of the river, and only the boardwalk area works on foot. The beach itself makes a good walking and cycling route, but traffic jams during the big events.

Shopping is an afterthought in both, and what differs is what you bring home. Daytona offers an outlet centre, beachwear shops and the motorcycle gear sold along Main Street. Memphis has vintage vinyl in its record shops, Elvis memorabilia, and small boutiques on Broad Avenue and in Cooper-Young.

Costs are much the same, and in both the big extra is a car. In Daytona, older oceanfront motels and condos keep rooms cheap until the Daytona 500 or Bike Week, when rates jump. In Memphis, barbecue and soul-food meals are filling and inexpensive, but full admission at Graceland and the other music sites adds up, and the spring festivals push hotel prices up.

Memphis is a music city, and you can find a show any night. House bands play blues, soul and Southern rock on Beale Street from the afternoon, Midtown adds rock and hip-hop, and the Levitt Shell in Overton Park puts on free concerts in summer. The Orpheum, the symphony, the opera and a respected ballet company cover the formal arts.

Daytona's calendar is thinner. A winter series brings visiting orchestras to town, the Peabody Auditorium hosts touring Broadway shows, and the oceanfront bandshell has free concerts on summer evenings. For more choice, people drive to Orlando.

Neither city has a spa tradition, but Daytona is the more restful place. It has resort spas, early walks on the hard sand and slow afternoons by a condo pool, though that calm disappears during race weeks and Bike Week.

Memphis is about late nights more than rest. Its quiet moments are a morning walk in Overton Park or an evening on the bluffs watching the river.