Myrtle Beach or Orange Beach?

Both are true beach towns, and the difference lies in the sand and the sea. Myrtle Beach sits on the Grand Strand, about 100km of wide, flat, pale sand on the Atlantic. The water is greenish and the waves are usually small. The central stretch by the boardwalk is crowded with towers, while Surfside and Garden City further south are calmer and backed by dunes.

Orange Beach has fine white quartz sand, and on calm days the Gulf turns a clear green that the Atlantic here never matches. Its water also warms up earlier and stays warm later. Rip currents are a serious hazard on the Gulf, though, so swimmers there need to watch the warning flags.

Neither town is a reason to travel for food, and both are best for a few good seafood dinners. Along the Myrtle Beach strip you find buffets, pancake houses and chains. The better meals are a short drive away, at the waterfront restaurants of Murrells Inlet or in the light Calabash-style fried fish over the North Carolina line.

Orange Beach is a more purely Gulf kitchen, with deep-water Royal Red shrimp, chargrilled oysters, snapper and West Indies crab salad served in fish houses on the back bays.

Myrtle Beach comes out ahead, though both towns are thin on sights. It has one sight that is truly worth a day: Brookgreen Gardens, a former rice plantation turned sculpture garden with exhibits on the people enslaved there, and next door the Moorish-style Atalaya house in Huntington Beach State Park.

Orange Beach has only a small museum of Native American and fishing history in town. Anyone who wants history there has to drive out to the forts and old towns along the coast.

Myrtle Beach offers more choice after dark. In summer the oceanfront blocks around the boardwalk fill with beach bars and rooftop decks, and the entertainment complexes have dance clubs that stay open late. North Myrtle Beach adds something you won't find elsewhere: the shag, the Carolina beach dance, still danced in old clubs on Main Street.

Orange Beach has no clubs. A night out there means the Flora-Bama roadhouse on the state line and a few marina bars, and you need a car or a taxi to get between them.

Orange Beach gives more to do outdoors. A paved trail runs through pine woods and wetland into Gulf State Park, the back bays are sheltered for paddling, and charter boats and artificial reefs draw anglers and divers. Bon Secour refuge is good for birding during the migrations.

Myrtle Beach has its own good spots, including the marsh boardwalks and alligators at Huntington Beach State Park and kayaking among the Waccamaw River's cypress swamps. Otherwise the outdoors there means golf. Both coasts are entirely flat.

The two are broadly level, but their day trips are laid out differently. From Myrtle Beach the outstanding outing is Charleston, about two hours away, which makes for a long day. Nearer to hand are only smaller places such as Georgetown's waterfront and Conway's riverwalk.

Orange Beach has more within easy reach. Pensacola's colonial quarter and naval aviation museum are under an hour away, and Mobile, Fairhope and the ferry to Dauphin Island are all close. From either town you need a car for all of these.

Both work well with children, and Myrtle Beach has a slight edge because it has more to do when nobody wants the beach. There is a large aquarium, an amusement park with an old wooden roller coaster, water parks, the observation wheel on the boardwalk and endless themed mini-golf.

Orange Beach is gentler and quieter, built around condo pools, dolphin boats and early nights, with a zoo and a water park within half an hour. On the Gulf, rip currents mean the children need closer watching in the water.

You will need a car in both towns, and summer traffic crawls on the main roads of each. Myrtle Beach covers a much longer stretch of coast. Its compensation is the walkable oceanfront area around the boardwalk, where visitors also get about by bicycle or golf cart.

Orange Beach lies along a single highway, so walking only covers the block you are staying on. Its paved trails, however, make a bicycle more useful there.

Myrtle Beach is clearly better for shopping. It has two large outlet centres at either end of the city, waterfront complexes, and the Market Common, which feels more like a town centre. On the coast road to the south you can buy sweetgrass baskets.

Orange Beach sells mostly swimwear, souvenirs and fishing tackle. For brand names, visitors drive inland to the outlet mall at Foley.

Myrtle Beach is the cheaper stay. It has so many motels, condos and oceanfront rooms that rates outside the peak can be very low, and kitchen units help with food costs. July and long weekends are the exception, when prices jump.

Orange Beach charges full American resort prices in summer. It only becomes good value for groups sharing a large rental, or for a quiet stay between late autumn and early spring.

Both towns draw touring country and rock acts and have cover bands in the beach bars on summer nights, so a concert or a bar band is easy to find in either. Where they part is in what else fills an evening. Myrtle Beach is the place for a staged show: its big indoor theatres put on polished musical revues, comedy and seasonal Christmas productions, and costumed dinner shows turn a meal into the night's entertainment. That suits families and anyone who wants a seated evening out, whatever the weather.

Orange Beach leans towards music heard in the open air, with tours at the marina amphitheatre through the warmer months and singer-songwriters in the bars. Its stand-out is the Frank Brown songwriters' festival each November, when writers play their own songs on stages around the state line, which is a good reason to visit out of season. Opera, orchestras and serious theatre are missing from both.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and both offer little more than resort spas. Orange Beach is generally the calmer place to unwind, with long empty mornings and sunsets over the back bays, especially from autumn to spring.

In Myrtle Beach, a restful stay means getting away from the strip to the slower pace of Pawleys Island at the southern end.