Gulf Shores or Memphis?

Gulf Shores is built around one long strand of squeaky white quartz sand. Condo towers line the busier stretches, and low dunes back the beach in Gulf State Park and towards Fort Morgan. From late spring to October the Gulf is warm and often clear green, though rip currents mean you should watch the warning flags.

Memphis has nothing comparable. The Mississippi is a working river of barges and fast current, so cooling off means a hotel pool, a splash pad or a drive out to a lake in the countryside.

Memphis is the better place to eat. Its dry-rubbed ribs and pulled-pork sandwiches belong to one of the great American barbecue traditions. Around them come soul food, catfish and Delta-style tamales, with more modern cooking in Cooper-Young and Midtown.

Gulf Shores eats more simply: fried or grilled shrimp, Royal Reds, oysters and gumbo at open-air shacks and big waterfront restaurants. It is fresh and satisfying, and many visitors cook shrimp from the seafood markets in their condo, but there is little choice beyond seafood.

After the beach, this is the widest gap between the two. Memphis tells two stories of national weight: its music history at Graceland, Sun Studio and the Stax museum, and the civil rights history told at the Lorraine Motel. The historic centre itself is patchy, so you spend your time in museums rather than strolling the streets.

Gulf Shores has Fort Morgan, the brick star fort that played its part in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, and a small local museum. Together they fill a morning. For anything more you have to drive to Mobile or Pensacola.

Memphis offers more to do in the evening. Beale Street closes to traffic at weekends and you can carry a drink from bar to bar until late, while Overton Square and Cooper-Young in Midtown have quieter dive bars and beer gardens. Neither city has a real club scene.

In Gulf Shores, going out means open-air beach-bar decks with sand underfoot and frozen drinks. The famous roadhouse on the Florida line stays loud well into the night, but outside summer and spring break most of the resort goes to bed early.

Gulf Shores has more to do outdoors, and much of it is on the water. You can take a dolphin cruise, go deep-sea fishing from Orange Beach, paddle the back bays or explore the Mobile-Tensaw Delta swamp inland. On land, the paved trails of Gulf State Park and the dunes and birdlife of Bon Secour add plenty more.

Memphis offers greener outings within the city: cycling across the Mississippi on the Big River Crossing, the lakes and bison of Shelby Farms Park, and the old-growth forest in Overton Park. Both places are completely flat and too humid in midsummer for anything strenuous.

Both make good bases for drives of an hour or two, and both need a car. The outings from Gulf Shores are gentle and varied: Mobile's ironwork balconies and moored battleship, bayside Fairhope, Pensacola's naval aviation museum and the car ferry to Dauphin Island.

The trips from Memphis follow a theme. Highway 61 runs south into the Delta blues country around Clarksdale and the Blues Trail. Faulkner's Oxford, Elvis's birthplace in Tupelo and the Shiloh battlefield lie further out, which makes this the stronger list for music and history pilgrims.

Gulf Shores is designed for families. It has condos with kitchens and pools, soft sand, a water park, a small hands-on zoo, a Ferris wheel in Orange Beach and theme parks in Foley for hot or wet afternoons. Rip currents and the summer heat are the things to watch.

Memphis can fill a few good days, led by its large zoo in Overton Park, the Children's Museum, the Pink Palace planetarium and Shelby Farms. Its best museums, though, mean more to teenagers than to young children.

Neither city works well without a car, but Memphis at least has a walkable core. Beale Street, the riverfront, the Civil Rights Museum and the South Main arts district sit close together, and heritage trolleys run along Main Street. Graceland, Midtown and Shelby Farms are a drive or a ride-hail away.

Gulf Shores is strung out along one beach road, with everything else on inland highways, so on foot you can only cover your own stretch of beach. Bikes are handy in Gulf State Park, and traffic over the bridges is heavy on summer weekends.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Memphis has a little more character, with vintage vinyl in independent record shops and small boutiques in Cooper-Young and along Broad Avenue. Shopping in Gulf Shores is practical: beachwear stores, surf and fishing shops, and the big outlet mall in Foley, where many visitors spend a rainy afternoon.

Memphis is a little easier on the wallet. Hotels are reasonably priced outside the busy festival weekends, and barbecue and soul-food plates are cheap and filling, though car hire, tips and Graceland's admission add up.

In Gulf Shores, costs depend on when you go. Beachfront condos are expensive in June and July, while rentals drop sharply in winter and the shoulder months. The free beaches, the park trails and a condo kitchen help keep costs down at any time of year.

Live music is one of the main reasons to visit Memphis. Beale Street clubs play blues and soul from the afternoon on, Midtown venues add rock and hip-hop, and the Levitt Shell in Overton Park puts on free outdoor concerts in the warm months. The Orpheum, the symphony orchestra, an opera company and a respected ballet company cover the formal side.

Gulf Shores has bands on beach-bar stages, a long-running songwriters' festival each November at the state-line roadhouse, and touring country and rock acts at the Orange Beach amphitheatre. For theatre or classical music you have to drive an hour to Mobile.

Gulf Shores is the better place to rest, mostly because of its pace. Outside summer weekends it is quiet and goes to bed early, and for many visitors a slow week of sunsets from the balcony is the whole point. A few resort and day spas cover the rest.

A Memphis trip is built around music, barbecue and late nights, and most day spas are out in the eastern suburbs. The calm moments come from an early walk in Overton Park or an evening on the bluffs above the river.