Myrtle Beach or Pensacola?

These are two equally strong beach destinations on different seas. Myrtle Beach has sheer length: the Grand Strand's wide, flat sand runs for about 100km, with towers, piers and a boardwalk in the middle and calmer, dune-backed stretches at Surfside, Garden City and the state parks. The Atlantic there is greenish rather than clear.

Pensacola wins on looks. Santa Rosa Island has dazzling white quartz sand and clear green Gulf water, much of it protected as national seashore, and the calm sound side is ideal for toddlers. The swimming season is also a little longer. Rip currents are the hazard to respect on rougher days.

Neither city is a reason to travel for food, but Pensacola eats somewhat better. Downtown around Palafox Street has modern Southern restaurants, brewery taprooms and a Saturday market, and the waterfront places serve chargrilled oysters and royal red shrimp.

In Myrtle Beach the strip is mostly seafood buffets, pancake houses and chains. To eat well you have to drive out to the docks at Murrells Inlet or across the state line for Calabash-style fried fish.

Here the gap is wide. Myrtle Beach is a twentieth-century resort, and its sights fit into one day: the sculpture garden at Brookgreen on an old rice plantation, the Moorish-style Atalaya next door and a small art museum in a beach cottage.

Pensacola has centuries of Spanish, French and British rule to show for itself. You can see it in the restored houses around Plaza Ferdinand, the brick Fort Pickens and the naval aviation museum, with its fort and lighthouse alongside. Allow two or three days, and bring ID for the base.

The two are about even for going out, but the style differs. Myrtle Beach is louder and more resort-like, with oceanfront beach bars, themed bars and a cluster of dance clubs at the entertainment complexes, plus the shag clubs of North Myrtle Beach. Pensacola has almost no clubs. Its evenings centre on downtown pubs, cocktail bars, rooftops and taprooms around the Seville Quarter, with sand-floored beach bars on the island and an infamous roadhouse on the state line.

Both are flat coastal country, but Pensacola has more to get out into. The national seashore's dunes, marsh and bike path make for easy wildlife spotting. The Blackwater River's clear, sand-bottomed water is a joy to canoe, and the sunken carrier offshore draws serious divers.

Myrtle Beach has good birdwatching at Huntington Beach State Park, with alligators in the lagoon, and kayaking in the Waccamaw cypress swamps. Otherwise its outdoor life leans heavily on its many golf courses.

Day trips are a near draw, and both need a car. Myrtle Beach has the bigger prize in Charleston, though a two-hour drive each way makes it a long day. Georgetown's old port and Wilmington's riverfront are other options.

Pensacola's outings are closer. Mobile, with its Mardi Gras heritage and battleship, is only an hour away, and Fairhope is just across the bay. Beyond them, the choices are mostly more beach towns along the coast.

Myrtle Beach was built for this. Beyond its gentle surf it adds an aquarium, water parks, a seaside amusement park, an observation wheel and more themed mini-golf than any family could finish. Resort hotels with lazy rivers and kitchen suites make long stays easy. The spring break weeks are the ones to avoid.

Pensacola works well for a quieter beach week, with calm sound-side shallows, the plane museum and the Fort Pickens tunnels. However, it has few big attractions, and children who expect rides will run out of things to do sooner.

Both are car destinations, but the layouts differ. In Myrtle Beach everything sits along about 100km of multi-lane highway, and summer traffic on Kings Highway is slow. Only the boardwalk blocks and the sand itself are easy on foot, though golf carts and bikes help locally. Pensacola has a compact, walkable downtown and a free seasonal trolley on the beach strip. Still, bridges separate the island from the town, so most trips end up as drives.

Myrtle Beach gives shoppers more to do, mainly through two large outlet centres, waterfront complexes and the town-centre feel of the Market Common. Sweetgrass baskets sold along the road south are the one real local craft.

Pensacola's shopping is smaller and more personal: independent boutiques and antique shops on Palafox Street and crafts at the Saturday market, with little beyond a regional mall.

Myrtle Beach is the cheaper trip, mainly because it has so many motels, hotels and condos. Outside high summer, oceanfront rooms can cost very little, and kitchens help keep meal costs down. July and long weekends push prices up sharply.

Pensacola's beachfront rooms cost more. Staying in town or inland saves money, and the free naval museum and low-cost national seashore help. In both places, budget for a hire car and American-style tipping.

Pensacola has a small edge, and a very different kind of stage. The restored 1925 Saenger Theatre hosts a symphony, an opera company, a ballet and touring shows, and a long-running community theatre adds to the calendar. Myrtle Beach offers polished variety entertainment: country and gospel revues, Christmas spectaculars and knights-and-pirates dinner shows that suit families better than serious arts lovers.

Neither has a bathing or spa culture beyond hotel treatment rooms, so rest comes down to choosing a quiet spot and the right season. In Myrtle Beach that means escaping the noisy strip for Pawleys Island in spring or autumn. In Pensacola it means the island and the empty stretches of Perdido Key once the summer crowds have gone.