Destin or Memphis?

There is no contest here. Destin's fine white quartz sand runs from Okaloosa Island and Henderson Beach State Park through Miramar Beach towards 30A, in front of clear green water, and the sandbar at Crab Island is good for wading. Keep an eye on the flags, because rip currents are a real danger on rough days.

Memphis sits on the Mississippi, which is fast, full of barges and not for swimming. Cooling off there means a hotel pool, a splash pad or a drive out to a lake in the countryside.

Both cook in a Southern style, but Memphis has the stronger table. Its dry-rubbed ribs, pulled-pork sandwiches and local oddities like barbecue spaghetti are a reason to visit in themselves. Soul food, Delta tamales and a modern layer of restaurants in Cooper-Young and Midtown back them up.

Destin's strength is narrower: Gulf snapper, grouper and royal red shrimp on harbour decks, and some kitchens will cook the fish you caught. Away from the seafood, the coast highway is mostly chains, and the more ambitious cooking is out along 30A.

Memphis is the place for sights. The music trail of Graceland, Sun Studio and Stax, and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, are of national importance, even though the historic centre itself is small and patchy.

Destin has almost nothing old: a small museum of its fishing past, plus the temple mound and the outdoor collection of military aircraft in neighbouring Fort Walton Beach. If you want history there, you have to drive to Pensacola.

Memphis gives you more to do after dark. Beale Street is a loud party street where you can carry a drink from bar to bar until late. For a quieter night, Overton Square and Cooper-Young have easier-going dive bars and beer gardens.

Destin's nightlife is seasonal and outdoors: decks on the harbour boardwalk, beach bars on Okaloosa Island and afternoon drinking on boats rafted up at Crab Island. Outside summer and spring break, most evenings end early, and neither city has a club scene to speak of.

Destin's outdoors is on the water. Deep-sea charters reach big game fish quickly, the bay is calm enough for paddleboarding and sailing, dolphins swim in the pass, and the state parks to the east have high dunes and rare coastal dune lakes.

Memphis has flat floodplain and river views instead. Walking across the Big River Crossing into Arkansas, the lakes and bison of Shelby Farms Park and the old-growth forest in Overton Park make good half-days, but there is less to build a trip around. In both places summer heat pushes activity into the early morning.

Memphis has slightly more to choose from, and its trips share a theme. Highway 61 leads south into the Delta to Clarksdale's juke joints and the Blues Trail, and Faulkner's Oxford, Elvis's birthplace at Tupelo and the battlefield at Shiloh are all within about two hours.

From Destin, the best outings are the planned pastel towns of 30A, such as Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach, and Pensacola with its colonial district, naval aviation museum and brick forts. After those, the list runs out quickly.

Destin is far easier with children. Calm, clear water and soft sand on good days, condos with kitchens and pools, the marine park on Okaloosa Island, a water park, go-karts and pirate-ship cruises from the harbour all add up to a trip shaped around them. Parents do need to know the rip-current flags.

Memphis can fill a few good days with the zoo in Overton Park, the Pink Palace planetarium, the Children's Museum and the bison at Shelby Farms. Its big museums suit teenagers more than small children, though, and the summer heat is hard on them.

Neither works well without a car, but Memphis at least has a walkable core. Downtown, you can walk between Beale Street, the riverfront, the Civil Rights Museum and South Main, and heritage trolleys run along Main Street. Graceland, Midtown and Shelby Farms still mean driving or a ride-hail.

Destin is strung along one congested coastal highway with few safe crossings, so even getting to the beach or to dinner usually means driving. The exceptions are the harbour boardwalk and the bike trail along 30A.

Destin has more for a shopper, though it is American resort retail. There is a large outlet centre near Miramar Beach and an open-air mall of chain stores, and the 30A towns have more stylish boutiques, galleries and home-décor shops.

Shopping in Memphis is about finds rather than range: vintage vinyl in record shops, plus small vintage and art shops on Broad Avenue and in Cooper-Young. Mainstream stores are in suburban malls, and there is no central shopping street to stroll.

Memphis is the cheaper trip. Hotels are reasonably priced outside the busiest downtown weekends, and a barbecue or soul-food lunch fills you up for little. A car, tipping and Graceland's admission still add up, and the spring festivals push prices up.

Destin is expensive in exactly the season you would want it, with resort-coast rates for beachfront condos, waterfront dining and charter fishing. Late autumn to early spring costs far less, but by then the sea is too cold for swimming.

This is where Memphis is in another league. House bands play blues, soul and Southern rock on Beale Street every night of the year, Midtown venues add rock and hip-hop, and the Levitt Shell in Overton Park puts on free summer concerts. The Orpheum, the symphony, the opera and the ballet cover the formal side.

Destin's live music is mostly cover bands and acoustic sets on bar decks. The regional symphony and touring shows play across the bay in Niceville, and there are small theatres and summer lawn concerts in the 30A towns.

Neither city has a spa tradition, but Destin is the easier place to unwind. The big golf and beach resorts around Miramar Beach and Sandestin have spas, and in spring and autumn, empty sand early in the morning and slow afternoons on a balcony do the rest.

Memphis is a trip of music, barbecue and late nights, and wellness there means a hotel spa or a day spa in the suburbs. The calm comes from a morning walk in Overton Park or an evening watching the river from the bluffs.