Memphis or St. Pete Beach?

Memphis sits on the Mississippi, a working river full of barges and strong currents that nobody swims in. Cooling off there means a hotel pool or a drive out to a lake in the countryside.

St. Pete Beach is built around its sand. A long barrier-island strip of pale quartz faces calm, shallow Gulf water, with Pass-a-Grille at the quiet southern end and the wilder beaches of Fort De Soto and Shell Key a short trip away.

Memphis is the place to travel to for food. Its pork barbecue comes as dry-rubbed ribs or pulled shoulder sandwiches, alongside catfish, Delta tamales and soul cooking, and Cooper-Young and Midtown add a modern layer.

St. Pete Beach eats simply and by the water, with grouper sandwiches, fried shrimp and smoked fish spread on open decks at sunset. The food is pleasant rather than memorable, and for more ambitious cooking you cross over to St. Petersburg.

Memphis has sights that draw people from across the country: Elvis's preserved rooms at Graceland, the small room at Sun Studio where he and Johnny Cash first recorded, and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. The historic centre is patchy, so your time goes into a handful of strong museums.

St. Pete Beach has the pink Don CeSar hotel, Pass-a-Grille's old cottages and the coastal batteries at Fort De Soto, which fill an afternoon at most. For serious museums you go across the bay.

Memphis gives you the bigger night out. Beale Street closes to traffic at weekends and becomes one loud party street that runs late, where you carry your drink from bar to bar. Overton Square and Cooper-Young have calmer bars where locals go.

In St. Pete Beach the evening peaks at sunset on the tiki decks, often with a cover band, and most people are done soon after dark. Neither place has a club scene, but only Memphis keeps going late.

Outdoors in Memphis means mostly land and parks. You can walk the Big River Crossing into Arkansas, visit the lakes, bison and long trails of Shelby Farms Park, or see the old-growth forest in Overton Park.

St. Pete Beach has more to offer, and nearly all of it is on the water. You can paddle the mangrove trails at Fort De Soto, spot dolphins from a boat, and look for manatees in the cooler months and roseate spoonbills on the flats. Both places are flat, and in both the summer heat pushes activity into the early morning.

Day trips from Memphis follow a pilgrim's route. Highway 61 runs south into the Delta for Clarksdale's juke joints and the Blues Trail markers, and further out are Faulkner's house in Oxford, Elvis's birthplace in Tupelo and the Civil War battlefield at Shiloh. The towns are small, and all of it means driving.

St. Pete Beach has a wider spread within easy reach. St. Petersburg's art museums are half an hour away, with Ybor City in Tampa, the Greek sponge docks at Tarpon Springs and the Ringling estate in Sarasota not far behind, and Orlando's theme parks at the outer edge of a day.

Memphis can fill a few days with children: the long-established zoo in Overton Park, the planetarium at the Pink Palace, the bison at Shelby Farms and the daily march of the Peabody ducks. But the heat, the driving and the grown-up subjects of its main museums make it harder work.

St. Pete Beach is much easier with young children. Shallow, calm water and soft sand do most of the work, and many beachfront hotels have pools. Shelling at Shell Key, dolphin boats and the aquariums at Clearwater and Tampa cover the rest.

In both places a car does most of the work, but the layout differs. Memphis has a walkable downtown with heritage trolleys on Main Street, then spreads out, with Graceland, Midtown and Shelby Farms all a drive or ride-hail apart and buses of little use to a visitor.

St. Pete Beach is one narrow strip, with a beach trolley along Gulf Boulevard and easy cycling around Pass-a-Grille. Getting about on the island is simple, but every outing beyond it, including the trip to Tampa's airport, means a drive.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Memphis has a little more character. It has independent record shops selling vintage vinyl, music memorabilia, and the boutiques and vintage stores of Cooper-Young and Broad Avenue.

St. Pete Beach runs mostly to swimwear, beach gear and souvenirs, with a few galleries on Corey Avenue and in Pass-a-Grille. In both places, malls and department stores mean a drive inland.

Memphis is the cheaper trip. Hotels are reasonably priced outside the busiest weekends and the spring festivals, and a barbecue or soul-food plate makes a filling, inexpensive meal. The costs that add up are the car and the full admission at Graceland.

St. Pete Beach costs considerably more, especially at beachfront resorts in the late-winter and spring high season. Older motels a block back from the sand and the quieter late-summer months bring the cost down, and the beaches themselves are free.

This is where Memphis is strongest. House bands play blues, soul and Southern rock on Beale Street every night, Midtown venues add rock and hip-hop, and the Levitt Shell in Overton Park puts on free concerts in the warm months. The Orpheum, a symphony orchestra, an opera company and a respected ballet company cover the formal arts.

St. Pete Beach has cover bands and acoustic sets in its beach bars. For anything more you drive to the orchestra and theatres of St. Petersburg or to Tampa's performing arts centre.

Memphis is built for late nights rather than rest. Apart from hotel spas and day spas in the suburbs, the calm moments are an early walk in Overton Park or an evening on the bluffs above the river.

St. Pete Beach is the better place to slow down. The resort spas are there if you want them, but the real draw is the pace: a morning walk on the sand, a slow afternoon, and the sunset at Pass-a-Grille that everyone stops to watch.