Memphis or Tampa?

Tampa is the clear choice here. The bay shore in town is mostly seawall, but the barrier islands across the bridges have soft white sand and a calm Gulf, from busy Clearwater to quiet Caladesi Island. Expect a drive, not a stroll, unless you stay on the islands.

Memphis is about as far from a beach as an American city gets. The Mississippi is a working river full of barges, so in summer cooling off means a hotel pool or a drive out to a country lake.

Both cities eat well and are about even. What differs is the cooking. Memphis means smoke and pork: dry-rubbed ribs, pulled-shoulder sandwiches with slaw, and oddities like barbecue spaghetti, along with fried catfish, greens and Delta tamales.

Tampa's food comes from the Cuban, Spanish and Sicilian cigar workers of Ybor City: the pressed Cuban sandwich with salami, deviled crab croquettes and café con leche. Grouper and stone crab add seafood. Neither city has much at the top end, so eat what each does best.

Memphis has much more to see. Its music trail of Graceland, Sun Studio and the Stax museum, and the civil rights museum built around the Lorraine Motel, are places people cross the country to visit. The historic townscape is patchy, though, so your time goes into museums rather than wandering.

Tampa's heritage is narrower and fits into a couple of days. You get the brick cigar factories and social clubs of Ybor City, and the Moorish-looking minarets of Henry Plant's 1891 hotel. Art lovers head across the bay to St Petersburg.

The two are evenly matched, but the nights look different. Memphis centres on Beale Street, where at weekends you carry a drink from bar to bar and live bands play everywhere. Locals drift off to the dive bars and beer gardens of Cooper-Young and Overton Square. There is little real club scene.

Tampa has the dance floors. Seventh Avenue in Ybor City draws a young weekend crowd to its clubs, SoHo offers cocktail bars and patios, and the craft beer taprooms are a draw in their own right. Its big night is the Gasparilla pirate festival in winter.

Tampa offers more outdoors, almost all of it on the water. You can kayak through the cypress swamp of Hillsborough River State Park, paddle mangrove tunnels and watch manatees in winter. A longer drive reaches the clear spring-fed rivers at Crystal River and the alligators of Myakka River.

Memphis is flat floodplain, and its outdoor highlights are the river itself and big parks. Walk the Big River Crossing into Arkansas, watch the sunset from the bluffs, or cycle the trails of Shelby Farms past its bison herd. There is less variety, and both cities' summers push outdoor plans into the early morning.

Both are about equal for day trips, and both need a car. Memphis's outings follow one theme: south down Highway 61 into Delta blues country to Clarksdale's juke joints, plus Faulkner's Oxford, Elvis's birthplace in Tupelo and the Shiloh battlefield. It is a strong list for music and history pilgrims.

Tampa's list is more mixed: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the Greek sponge docks at Tarpon Springs, the Ringling estate in Sarasota and the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings at Lakeland. It has more variety but no single trip with the pull of the Delta.

Tampa is far easier with children. Busch Gardens pairs roller coasters with an animal park, the Florida Aquarium and ZooTampa's manatees fill afternoons, and the shallow Gulf beaches are ideal for toddlers. Legoland and Orlando are within reach for a longer day.

Memphis has a fine zoo, the Pink Palace planetarium, Shelby Farms and the daily duck march at the Peabody, but that is a few days' worth. Its best sights are about music and civil rights, which teenagers will get far more from than young children.

Neither works without a car, and the buses are of little use in either city. Downtown Memphis is walkable, with heritage trolleys on Main Street, but Graceland, Midtown and Shelby Farms are spread far apart across a low, wide city.

Tampa's streetcar links Downtown, the Channel District and Ybor City, and the Riverwalk is pleasant on foot. Every beach day, though, means crossing the bridges, where rush-hour traffic adds time.

Tampa is the better place to shop, with an upscale mall carrying luxury and department-store brands and the boutiques of Hyde Park Village in South Tampa. Its most local buy is a cigar rolled by hand in an Ybor City shop.

Memphis is about records and keepsakes. Look for vintage vinyl in independent shops, Elvis and blues memorabilia, and small vintage and art stores in Cooper-Young and on Broad Avenue. Anything mainstream means driving out to the eastern suburbs.

Memphis goes further on the same budget. Hotels are reasonable outside busy downtown weekends, and a barbecue lunch or soul-food plate is cheap and filling. Graceland's admission and the big spring festivals are the main costs to watch.

Tampa costs about the American average, with beach hotels pricier in the winter and spring season and cheaper in the hot summer. Theme park tickets weigh heavily on a family budget. In both cities a hire car or ride-hails add a steady extra cost.

Memphis is the stronger music city, and it is home-grown. House bands play blues, soul and Southern rock on Beale Street from the afternoon, Midtown venues add rock and hip-hop, and in summer the Levitt Shell holds free lawn concerts where Elvis once played. The Orpheum, the symphony orchestra and a respected ballet company cover the formal side.

Tampa's programme is reliable but mostly touring shows. Broadway, opera and ballet play at the Straz Center, the Florida Orchestra performs there, and the ornate 1926 Tampa Theatre screens films and hosts concerts. There is not much local scene to seek out.

Neither city is a place to unwind, but Tampa makes it easier. Some resort spas are substantial, and on the Gulf islands across the bay the days slow to long lunches and sunsets over the water.

Memphis has hotel and day spas but no real calm side. The quietest moments are an early walk in Overton Park's old forest or an evening on the bluffs watching the river go by.