Myrtle Beach or Newport, Rhode Island?

Myrtle Beach is built on its beach, and it shows. The Grand Strand gives about 100km of pale, flat sand, shallow water and small waves, warm enough in summer to stay in for hours, with quieter dune-backed stretches at Surfside, Garden City and the state parks.

Newport's beaches are good for a town, but they are a sideshow to its other sights. Easton's, Second and Third Beaches and the sheltered cove at Gooseberry are pleasant, though the water stays cool and swimming is limited to high summer. The sea is greener and the central strip louder at Myrtle Beach, but for days spent in the water it is in a different league.

Both towns eat mostly seafood, but Newport does it with more character. Lobster rolls, Rhode Island clear-broth chowder, clam cakes and local oysters eaten on the Thames Street wharves have a sense of place, and Bellevue Avenue adds a few smart dining rooms and there are wineries on the island's eastern shore.

Myrtle Beach's strip leans to buffets, pancake houses and chains, built for volume. The better meals are just outside town, at Murrells Inlet's waterfront and in Calabash-style fried seafood places. Neither town will hold a food lover for long, and Newport has Providence close by for more choice.

Here Newport is far ahead. The Breakers, Marble House and the other Gilded Age cottages are among the grandest houses in America, and the colonial streets of the Point and Historic Hill, with Touro Synagogue and the Redwood Library, add more than a century of earlier history.

Myrtle Beach is a twentieth-century resort with little past on show. Brookgreen Gardens, with its sculpture under live oaks and its record of plantation slavery, and the Moorish-style Atalaya nearby make a worthwhile day, but that is most of it.

Myrtle Beach has the bigger night out. Beach bars and rooftop decks around the boardwalk, themed bars and dance clubs in the entertainment complexes keep going late in summer, and North Myrtle Beach still dances the shag in its old Main Street clubs.

Newport goes out in pubs and waterfront bars along Thames Street, full of sailors and wedding parties, with a few cocktail bars but hardly any clubs. Nights end earlier there, though they are less rowdy than Myrtle Beach during spring break or a motorcycle rally.

Newport has the more striking coast. The Cliff Walk and Ocean Drive follow a rocky Atlantic shore, Sachuest Point is good for seabirds, and the sailing is among the best in North America, with surfing at Second Beach in autumn swells.

Myrtle Beach's outdoors is softer and flatter: maritime forest, salt marsh with herons and alligators at Huntington Beach State Park, and cypress swamps on the Waccamaw River for kayaking. Its real outdoor draw is golf, with dozens of courses along the Grand Strand.

Newport has more within easy reach. Providence and its RISD Museum are under an hour away, Boston about an hour and a half, and Bristol, Block Island by ferry, New Bedford's whaling museum and Mystic's seaport offer a different day out each time.

From Myrtle Beach the standout is Charleston, a rewarding but long day two hours south, with Georgetown, Pawleys Island and Wilmington as smaller options. Both need a car for nearly everything, but Newport's options are closer together.

Myrtle Beach makes the easier family base by a wide margin, because it is built to keep children busy from morning to night. Suites with kitchens make mealtimes simpler, and evenings can be spent on the old wooden roller coaster at the seaside amusement park or up the giant observation wheel on the boardwalk. The catch is that almost every outing means a drive in summer heat, and parts of the oceanfront get boisterous after dark, especially during spring break weeks.

Newport offers children smaller, quieter pleasures: the carousel at Easton's Beach, the ramparts of Fort Adams, touch tanks of crabs and skates for a wet hour, and kites over Brenton Point. The calmer water at Third and Gooseberry Beaches suits small swimmers, but there is no zoo or theme park and the narrow streets are crowded in high summer, so a week there takes more planning.

Newport is far easier on foot. The harbour, Thames Street and the colonial quarters sit close together, and a bus or summer trolley climbs to the mansions and beaches. Parking and summer traffic on the island bridges are the frustrations.

Myrtle Beach is spread along about 100km of multi-lane highway with few pavements and sparse buses, so a car is essential. Only within a single resort block, or along the beach itself, is walking practical.

Neither is a shopping destination, and the two differ mainly in style. Myrtle Beach means big outlet malls, entertainment complexes and giant beachwear stores, plus the more town-like Market Common, while Newport offers galleries, sailing clothes and jewellery on the wharves and antiques on Spring and Franklin Streets. Bargain hunters will prefer Myrtle Beach, and browsers who like an afternoon of small shops will prefer Newport.

Myrtle Beach is much cheaper to stay in. The sheer number of hotels, motels and condos keeps rooms affordable, especially outside July, and kitchens cut food costs, though a car, attractions and tips still add up.

Newport is expensive, especially in summer and early autumn, when room rates, mansion tickets, seafood dinners and parking quickly add up. Staying in Middletown, coming midweek or visiting in late autumn are the usual ways to save money.

Neither town has a serious year-round arts season, but Newport has a stronger claim to fame. Its jazz and folk festivals at Fort Adams are among the most storied in the country, and chamber music fills the mansion ballrooms each July, so the trip is worth timing around them.

Myrtle Beach offers polished evenings of a different kind: country, gospel and Christmas variety shows, dinner theatre with knights or pirates, and touring country acts, available through much of the year.

Neither town has any bathing tradition, so rest depends on hotel spas and timing in both. Newport makes the calmer retreat, with a quiet Cliff Walk and a slower harbour in May, June, September and October. Myrtle Beach's main strip is loud and car-bound in summer, and the most peace there is found around Pawleys Island out of season.