Gulf Shores or Kansas City?

Here the gap could hardly be wider. Gulf Shores is built on its beach, a continuous run of soft white sand with dune-backed stretches in Gulf State Park and towards Fort Morgan, and summer water warm and clear enough for long swims, with rip currents the one thing to respect.

Kansas City is a long way from any coast. Its lake beaches in the county parks and the public pools are fine for cooling off with children on a hot afternoon, but they are not a reason to travel.

Kansas City eats better, largely because of barbecue: hickory smoke, thick sweet sauce and burnt ends, served everywhere from old counters near 18th and Vine to polished dining rooms, with classic steakhouses and the River Market's Vietnamese and Ethiopian counters besides.

Gulf Shores cooks its own catch simply, with Royal Reds, oysters and gumbo at open-air shacks overlooking the water, and many visitors buy shrimp from the seafood markets to cook in the condo. Neither has much fine dining, so the choice is really smoke against seafood.

Gulf Shores has one serious sight, the brick star fort at Fort Morgan with its Civil War history, and a morning there covers it. Kansas City gives you a proper sightseeing list: the Nelson-Atkins with its Chinese collection and giant shuttlecocks, the National WWI Museum under the Liberty Memorial, and the Negro Leagues and jazz museums at 18th and Vine.

Union Station and the Spanish-style Country Club Plaza add some architecture, though the sights are spread out and two or three days take in the main ones.

Kansas City gives you more choice: the big sports bars of the Power and Light District, the scruffy student strip in Westport, and calmer cocktail and craft-beer rooms in the Crossroads. Gulf Shores goes out on the sand, at open-air beach decks with frozen drinks and the famous roadhouse on the state line, but much of the resort is asleep early. Neither has much of a club scene.

Gulf Shores has the more rewarding outdoors, and most of it involves water: paddling the back bays, dolphin cruises, deep-sea fishing from Orange Beach, cycling the trails through Gulf State Park and birdwatching at Bon Secour during migration. The Mobile-Tensaw Delta adds one of the country's great river swamps within reach.

Kansas City's surroundings are gentle prairie and farmland, so time outdoors means Swope Park, the creekside trails and boating on the reservoirs. Summers in both are hot and humid, so set out early.

Gulf Shores has the better spread within an hour: the ironwork balconies and battleship of Mobile, the bayside gardens of Fairhope, Pensacola's naval aviation museum, and the car ferry across Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island.

Kansas City's outings are quieter half days, such as Truman's home and library in Independence, the university town of Lawrence, river-town Weston and the Pony Express story in St Joseph. Both need a car.

Gulf Shores is the easier family trip because the whole resort is organised around children: a condo with a pool, soft sand, a water park, a small zoo and the Ferris wheel on the Orange Beach waterfront. Keep an eye on rip currents and the midday heat.

Kansas City has more indoor variety, with Science City inside Union Station, an aquarium and Lego play centre at Crown Center, a big zoo and a roller-coaster park, which helps on a wet day. The price is a lot of time in the car between them.

Neither works well without a car, but Kansas City relies on one less. Its streetcar along Main Street links the River Market, downtown, Union Station and Crown Center, so a day or two without driving is realistic if you stay near the line.

Gulf Shores is strung along one beach road and inland highways with almost no public transport. Walking only works within your own stretch of beach, and bridge traffic thickens on summer weekends, though bikes are handy inside Gulf State Park.

Kansas City has places worth browsing: the 1920s Country Club Plaza, with upmarket stores around its tiled courtyards, and galleries, design and vintage shops in the Crossroads. Gulf Shores means beachwear and souvenir emporiums, with the big outlet mall in Foley as the rainy-day trip. Neither is a shopping destination, but only Kansas City has independent shops to seek out.

Overall costs come out much the same, but they fall in different places. In Gulf Shores the calendar decides: beachfront rentals are dear in June and July and far cheaper in winter, and free beaches plus a condo kitchen keep daily spending down.

Kansas City's hotels are reasonably priced through the year and the Nelson-Atkins has free general entry, while a hire car, tax and tips on every bill, and tickets to the family attractions push the total up.

Kansas City has a real musical identity in jazz, the hard-swinging, blues-based style of Count Basie and Charlie Parker, still played in small clubs most nights. Add the symphony, opera and ballet at the Kauffman Center and summer musicals at the open-air Starlight Theatre, and it is easy to fill several evenings.

Gulf Shores offers bands and singer-songwriters on beach-bar stages, the November songwriters' festival at the state-line roadhouse, and touring country and rock at the Orange Beach amphitheatre. Anything formal means an hour's drive to Mobile.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so the spa side comes down to a few hotel and day spas in both. Gulf Shores relaxes you better through its pace, a slow week of sunsets from a condo balcony away from the busy summer weekends. Kansas City's calm is a quiet morning in the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park, with the old mineral-water resort of Excelsior Springs about forty minutes north.