Myrtle Beach or New York?

Myrtle Beach wins easily here. The Grand Strand gives you mile after mile of wide, pale sand with small waves, and the summer sea is warm enough to stay in for hours. Surfside, Garden City and the state park dunes are quieter than the central blocks.

New York's beaches are real but secondary: Coney Island and Brighton Beach at the end of the subway lines, the Rockaways for surfers, and Jones Beach out on Long Island. The water stays noticeably cooler and the swimming season is short, so a New York beach is a summer afternoon away from the city.

New York is one of the great eating cities, and Myrtle Beach cannot compete. Along the Strand, eating mostly means seafood buffets, pancake houses and chains. The best meals there are the boat-fresh shrimp and oysters of Murrells Inlet and Calabash-style fried fish, and you can try both in a couple of evenings.

In New York you can eat Fujianese food in Flushing, Tibetan in Jackson Heights and Italian on Arthur Avenue in the same week, then book a tasting-menu counter. In between, pizza by the slice, bagels and deli pastrami are on almost every corner.

Myrtle Beach's sights fit into a single day. The main ones are Brookgreen Gardens, with sculpture set among live oaks and exhibits on the rice plantation and the people enslaved there, and the Moorish-style Atalaya in Huntington Beach State Park.

New York could keep you busy for weeks. There are the Met, MoMA, the Natural History museum and the Cloisters, plus Ellis Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, and brownstone and cast-iron streets that tell the city's nineteenth- and twentieth-century story.

Nights out in Myrtle Beach are loud and summery, centred on the boardwalk and the entertainment complexes with their themed bars and dance clubs. North Myrtle Beach keeps the shag, the Carolina beach dance, alive on Main Street. Out of season much of it closes early.

New York runs all night, all year, and you choose the mood by neighbourhood. There are dive bars and cocktail bars in the East Village, wine bars in the West Village, rooftops above Midtown and warehouse dance floors in Bushwick that keep going until after dawn.

Neither city is a wilderness destination, but New York gives outdoor types a little more to do. Its parks and waterfront paths are good for running and cycling. Metro-North trains reach the steep climbs of Breakneck Ridge in about ninety minutes, and the Hudson Highlands are at their best for autumn colour in October.

Myrtle Beach sits in flat coastal country. You get marsh boardwalks with herons and alligators at Huntington Beach State Park, kayaking among the cypress swamps of the Waccamaw, dolphin cruises, and golf on dozens of courses. It suits paddling and birdwatching, not hiking.

Myrtle Beach has one excellent day out: Charleston, about two hours south. Georgetown's rice-culture museum, Pawleys Island and the Wilmington riverfront make smaller, easier days, but every one of them needs a car.

New York offers more, and you can reach most of it by train. Philadelphia's colonial old town is about an hour and a half away, Princeton and New Haven have their old universities, and up the Hudson are Dia Beacon, Storm King and the Gilded Age estates.

Myrtle Beach is built around the family vacation. It has gentle surf, hotels with lazy rivers and suites with kitchens, water parks, the observation wheel on the boardwalk and pirate-themed mini-golf, all a short drive apart. The main thing to avoid is the spring break weeks.

New York has outstanding outings for children, including the dinosaur halls, the Bronx Zoo and the free ferry ride past the Statue of Liberty. Day to day, though, subway stations with only stairs, small hotel rooms and the crowds in Midtown make it harder work with young children.

This is the biggest practical difference between the two. Myrtle Beach is spread along the length of the Grand Strand on multi-lane highways with few pavements and sparse buses, so you need a car, and summer traffic on Kings Highway can crawl. Only the boardwalk blocks and the beach itself are pleasant to walk.

In New York a car is more trouble than it is worth. Manhattan's grid is easy on foot, the subway runs around the clock, and ferries and Citi Bike fill the gaps. The only awkward part is getting to and from the airports.

Shopping in Myrtle Beach means two big outlet centres, The Market Common and huge beachwear stores full of inflatables, plus sweetgrass baskets sold on the road south. New York has everything from the flagship stores of Fifth and Madison Avenues and Bergdorf Goodman to SoHo's fashion brands, the boutiques of Nolita, Williamsburg vintage, and specialist book and record shops. A day at the outlets is about the only reason to shop on the coast.

Myrtle Beach is far cheaper. Its huge supply of motels and condos keeps rooms affordable outside July, and kitchens cut food bills. You still need to budget for a car and for normal American prices at attractions and on the golf course.

New York is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and Manhattan rooms are small and dear. Free things help: the Staten Island Ferry, the parks and the High Line. So do the cheap restaurants of Queens and Chinatown and staying in Brooklyn or Queens.

Myrtle Beach offers polished variety shows: country, gospel and Christmas revues, dinner shows with knights or pirates, and touring country acts. New York has almost everything. There is Broadway, Lincoln Center with the Met Opera, the Philharmonic and City Ballet, and Carnegie Hall, along with jazz in Village basements and Harlem and free Shakespeare in the parks in summer.

Neither city is a natural retreat, but New York has the more interesting bathing. The East Village's Russian and Turkish baths, open since the late 1800s, the banyas of Brighton Beach and the Korean-style spas in Queens give it a real culture of steam rooms and cold plunges. For quiet, there are the gardens of the Cloisters or a ferry across the harbour.

Myrtle Beach has hotel and golf-resort spas but no bathhouse tradition. Rest there means staying near Pawleys Island or going in spring or autumn, when the main strip calms down.