Gulf Shores or St. Louis?

This is the starkest difference between the two. Gulf Shores sits on a long strand of squeaky white quartz sand from Fort Morgan to the Florida line, with low dunes in Gulf State Park and warm, green water from late spring into October. Just watch the flags, because rip currents are a real hazard.

St. Louis is hundreds of kilometres from any coast, and the Mississippi and Missouri are working rivers, not swimming spots. Cooling off there means a pool or a long drive to an Ozark lake.

St. Louis has a food identity of its own, which Gulf Shores lacks. Toasted ravioli, Provel-topped cracker-crust pizza, gooey butter cake, serious ribs, the Italian trattorias of the Hill and the Bosnian, Vietnamese and Ethiopian kitchens of South Grand give it real range, plus the old Soulard Market and a deep brewing heritage.

Gulf Shores does one thing well: fresh Gulf seafood, from Royal Reds to chargrilled oysters, eaten in open-air shacks with water views. Beyond that there is little variety, and many visitors simply cook market shrimp in their condo.

St. Louis has far more to see. The Gateway Arch, the Old Courthouse where the Dred Scott case began, the Saint Louis Art Museum in its 1904 World's Fair building, the Wainwright Building and whole Victorian streets in Lafayette Square and Soulard easily fill two or three days.

Gulf Shores offers Fort Morgan, the brick star fort from the Battle of Mobile Bay, and a small local museum. Anyone wanting more has to drive out for it.

St. Louis gives you more choice after dark, though it is spread across separate districts: blues bars and old taverns in Soulard, dance bars on Washington Avenue, the late LGBTQ+ strip in the Grove and student bars on the Delmar Loop. You will often need a taxi between them.

Gulf Shores is all about beach bars: sandy open-air decks, frozen drinks and live bands, with the famous state-line roadhouse at Perdido Key staying loud late. There are no clubs, and outside summer and spring break the town goes to bed early.

Both have a reasonable amount of outdoors, but of very different kinds. Gulf Shores is flat and watery, with dunes, marsh, the paved cycling trails of Gulf State Park, birding at Bon Secour, dolphin cruises, deep-sea fishing and kayaking in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta.

St. Louis offers rolling, wooded country instead: Forest Park in the city, river bluffs and caves at Castlewood, the boulders of Elephant Rocks, the Katy Trail for cyclists and wintering bald eagles near Alton. Pick the coast for water-based days and the Ozark foothills for hiking.

There is a similar amount to do beyond each base, though the outings are different. From Gulf Shores you get pleasant Gulf Coast towns: Mobile's ironwork balconies and the USS Alabama, bayside Fairhope, Pensacola's naval aviation museum and the car ferry to Dauphin Island.

The trips from St. Louis carry more historical weight. Cahokia Mounds, a UNESCO site twenty minutes away, Ste. Genevieve's French colonial houses, the German wine towns of Hermann and Augusta, and Lincoln's Springfield are all within reach. In both cases you will need a car.

Both work well with children, but they suit different kinds of family trip. Gulf Shores is a classic beach week: a condo with a pool, soft sand, a water park, a small zoo and the Ferris wheel at Orange Beach, with an eye always kept on the surf.

St. Louis makes for a more active city stay. The climbable City Museum is unlike anything on the coast, the zoo and Science Center are free, and the Magic House and a ballgame at Busch Stadium fill the evenings and rainy days. Both mean driving between attractions.

Neither is easy without a car, but St. Louis gives you a little more help. MetroLink runs from the airport through the Central West End and Forest Park to downtown, and those districts are walkable once you are there. The roads are uncongested, and parking is easy.

Gulf Shores is strung out along a single beach road with almost no public transport. Bikes work inside Gulf State Park, but the bridges and beach road clog on summer weekends.

St. Louis has the more interesting browsing: vintage and record shops on Cherokee Street, independent shops on the Delmar Loop and boutiques in the Central West End. Even so, it makes for a pleasant afternoon rather than a reason to visit.

In Gulf Shores, shopping means beachwear emporiums, fishing shops and a day at the big Foley outlet mall when it rains.

Overall costs are much the same, but they rise and fall for different reasons. In Gulf Shores the season decides: summer condos are expensive, while winter rentals drop sharply, and a kitchen and the free beaches keep daily spending down.

St. Louis is steadier through the year, with hotels cheaper than in coastal cities and the zoo and Forest Park museums free. Car hire or taxis add to the bill in both places.

St. Louis is in another league here. The Saint Louis Symphony plays in the ornate Powell Hall, touring Broadway shows play the Fox, summer musicals run at the open-air Muny and opera has its own festival season. The city's blues heritage, from Chuck Berry to W.C. Handy, lives on in the Soulard bars and the National Blues Museum.

Gulf Shores has bands on beach-bar stages, the long-running November songwriters' festival at the state-line roadhouse and touring country and rock acts at the Orange Beach amphitheatre.

Neither place has a bathing or spa tradition, but Gulf Shores is the easier place to unwind. A handful of resort and day spas offer massages and treatments, and the setting does the rest: a walk along the sand, a swim and long days with nothing on the schedule.

St. Louis has hotel spas, day spas and yoga studios, mostly in Clayton and the Central West End, and its streets are rarely crowded. A quiet morning in Forest Park or the Missouri Botanical Garden's Japanese garden makes a calm pause, but it is a break within a sightseeing trip rather than the reason for one.