Myrtle Beach or Panama City Beach?

Both towns are built around the sand, and either will do for a beach vacation. The difference is in the look and feel. Myrtle Beach is on the Atlantic and has sheer length: about 100km of pale, flat sand along the Grand Strand, with greenish water, small waves and calmer dune-backed stretches at Surfside, Garden City and the state parks to the south.

Panama City Beach has a shorter shoreline, but it is the more striking of the two, with powder-white quartz sand and clear green Gulf water on calm days. It also has the sheltered lagoon at St. Andrews State Park and boat trips to the undeveloped sands of Shell Island. The catch is rip currents, so keep a close eye on the beach flags.

Neither town is a place to travel for food, and in both the main strip is mostly chains, buffets and themed restaurants. The difference is in the seafood on the edges. Myrtle Beach has the waterfront restaurants of Murrells Inlet, Calabash-style fried seafood just over the North Carolina line, and Lowcountry dishes such as shrimp and grits and she-crab soup, which give it some regional flavour.

Panama City Beach sticks to Gulf seafood: blackened grouper, shrimp baskets and oysters from the bays, eaten on dockside decks and at open-air shacks. A few kitchens near the lagoon and at the quieter western end cook with more care.

Neither town is somewhere to go for history, but Myrtle Beach has a little more to fill a day. Brookgreen Gardens, on a former rice plantation, sets American figurative sculpture among live oaks and tells the story of the people enslaved there. Next door, in Huntington Beach State Park, is Atalaya, a Moorish-style winter house from the 1930s.

Panama City Beach has the small Man in the Sea Museum, about diving history, and the older streets of the St. Andrews district across the bay. For anything more you need a longer drive.

Myrtle Beach offers more of a night out. Around the boardwalk there are rooftop decks and beach bars, the big entertainment complexes have a cluster of dance clubs that stay open late, and North Myrtle Beach keeps the shag alive in long-standing clubs on Main Street.

Panama City Beach has no real club scene. Evenings mean tiki huts, frozen drinks at sunset and decks over the sand around Pier Park and the lagoon, and outside summer the town is quiet by mid-evening. Spring break makes some weeks rowdy in both.

Both towns sit on flat coastal plain, but Panama City Beach makes more of the water. St. Andrews State Park pairs tall white dunes with a snorkelling lagoon, and Camp Helen State Park borders a rare coastal dune lake. Offshore, divers can explore artificial reefs and wrecks.

Myrtle Beach's strengths are on land and in the marshes. Huntington Beach State Park has marsh boardwalks for birdwatching and alligators in its lagoon, the cypress swamps of the Waccamaw River are good for kayaking, and dozens of golf courses line the Grand Strand.

Myrtle Beach has the best single outing of the two in Charleston, about two hours south, with its antebellum streets, harbour forts and plantations. Closer to town are Georgetown's old waterfront and rice-culture museum, and to the north are Wilmington's riverfront and Southport.

From Panama City Beach the best trip runs along Scenic Highway 30A to the planned pastel towns of Seaside, WaterColor and Rosemary Beach. To the east is the old oyster port of Apalachicola, and Pensacola is at the limit of a day out. You need a car for all of these, from either town.

Both towns are built for families, but Myrtle Beach has more for children to do. There is a large aquarium, a seaside amusement park with an old wooden roller coaster, water parks, the observation wheel on the boardwalk and themed mini-golf everywhere, and resort hotels have lazy rivers and kiddie pools.

Panama City Beach covers the basics well, with a water park, a marine park with dolphin shows, a small zoo and the calm St. Andrews lagoon for first snorkels. There is less variety, though, and rip currents mean children need closer watching in the sea. In both towns, avoid the spring break weeks.

Getting around is hard work in both towns, and you need a car for almost everything. Myrtle Beach spreads along roughly 100km of highway with sparse buses, though the blocks around the boardwalk are easy on foot and some visitors use bicycles or golf carts. Panama City Beach is a 43km strip along one main road, with a slow trolley-bus and patchy pavements, and in both towns summer traffic crawls and the sand makes the best walk.

Myrtle Beach has more choice. Bargain hunters have two big outlet centres, waterfront complexes mix shops with attractions, and The Market Common, on the old air force base, feels more like a town centre. The sweetgrass baskets sold along the coast road to the south are a rare local craft.

In Panama City Beach, shopping means the chain stores of Pier Park and the beachwear warehouses with shark-mouth entrances. For anything more individual, drive to the boutiques of the 30A towns.

Myrtle Beach is usually the cheaper of the two, because it has so many motels, hotels and condos, and oceanfront rooms can be remarkably cheap outside summer. Panama City Beach costs a little more overall, although long winter stays there are especially good value. In both, a kitchen helps keep costs down, you need a car, and meals and attractions cost what they do anywhere in America, so timing matters most: avoid July in Myrtle Beach, and spring break and peak summer on the beachfront in Panama City Beach.

Myrtle Beach has a real trade in shows. Large theatres stage country, gospel and pop revues, comedy and Christmas shows, there are dinner shows with knights or pirates, and touring country and rock acts play the main entertainment complex.

Panama City Beach has little beyond cover bands on beach-bar decks and summer concerts at the shopping centre. Across the bay, Panama City's restored historic theatre has a modest season of touring shows and local productions. Neither town has opera, an orchestra or serious drama.

Neither town has a bathing tradition, and in both, wellness comes down to resort spas and choosing the right season. In Myrtle Beach the quiet corner is the southern end around Pawleys Island in spring and autumn. Panama City Beach's beach empties from autumn to spring, when long sunset walks on the white sand set a much slower pace.