Myrtle Beach or Rehoboth Beach?

Both towns have wide, pale Atlantic sand and a boardwalk, but Myrtle Beach has far more beach and warmer water. The Grand Strand runs for about 100km, with calmer dune-backed stretches at Surfside, Garden City and the state parks south of the busy central blocks. The shallow, gently shelving sea suits children who want to wade for hours.

Rehoboth has a single beach the length of the town, plus the wilder sand of Cape Henlopen and Delaware Seashore State Park. It is lifeguarded and the surf is moderate, but the water is noticeably cooler and only good for long swims in high summer, so there are fewer real beach days.

Rehoboth eats better. Decades as Washington's summer escape have filled Rehoboth Avenue and its side streets with chef-led restaurants. Steamed blue crabs, crab cakes and raw bars give the food a Mid-Atlantic accent, and a well-known Delaware craft brewery started in the town.

Myrtle Beach's own strip is mostly seafood buffets, pancake houses and chains. The meals worth driving for are on the Murrells Inlet waterfront and at the Calabash fried-seafood places over the North Carolina line. Both towns scale back once the summer is over.

Neither town is a culture destination, but Myrtle Beach has the stronger single sight. Brookgreen Gardens is a sculpture garden on a former rice plantation that also tells the story of the people enslaved there, and the Moorish-style Atalaya stands next door. Rehoboth has less: the cottages of its old Methodist camp meeting, the Rehoboth Art League's galleries in their garden and a small museum house. For more history, visitors there go to Lewes or the wartime towers at Cape Henlopen.

The crowds are what set the two apart after dark. Myrtle Beach goes out in large, loud numbers: beach bars and rooftop decks on the oceanfront blocks, dance clubs that stay open late in the entertainment complexes, and the shag, the Carolina beach dance, still danced in the old clubs on North Myrtle Beach's Main Street. Spring break and rally weeks can get rowdy.

Rehoboth's evenings are more about conversation than dancing. Its piano lounges, drag nights and bars around Baltimore Avenue come from its long history as an LGBTQ resort. Dewey Beach, just to the south, has the big outdoor deck bars and the younger crowds. In both towns the scene shrinks sharply once summer is over.

Golf and cypress swamps set Myrtle Beach apart, while Rehoboth is for cycling and dunes. Myrtle Beach has dozens of courses along the Grand Strand, birdwatching and alligators at Huntington Beach State Park, and kayaking on the blackwater Waccamaw River.

Rehoboth is best explored by bike. The Junction and Breakwater Trail runs through woods and wetland to Lewes, Cape Henlopen has the tallest dunes on this coast, and the inland bays are sheltered for paddling. Assateague's wild ponies are about an hour away. Neither has hills, so expect gentle rather than dramatic country.

Both need a car, and both offer small historic towns rather than anything grand. From Myrtle Beach the best day out is Charleston, two hours south, a long day but worth it. Georgetown's rice-culture museum and the Wilmington riverfront are closer.

Rehoboth's best outings are nearer. Lewes is ten minutes away, and from there the ferry across Delaware Bay to the Victorian streets of Cape May makes a day with a sea crossing in it, which Myrtle Beach has no match for.

Myrtle Beach is built for children on a much larger scale. It has an aquarium, water parks, a seaside amusement park with a wooden roller coaster, the observation wheel on the boardwalk and endless themed mini-golf. Resort hotels add lazy rivers and suites with kitchens. The catch is the driving and the summer traffic.

Rehoboth is smaller and easier to manage. Funland's gentle rides on the boardwalk, lifeguarded beaches a short walk from the rental houses and the nature centre at Cape Henlopen suit young children well, but there is less to fill a long stay.

Rehoboth is much easier to get around. Downtown, the boardwalk and the beach are a short walk apart on a flat grid, bikes are everywhere, and a seasonal trolley runs to Dewey Beach and the outlets. Once you have found a parking space, the car can stay put.

Myrtle Beach spreads along the whole Grand Strand on multi-lane highways with few pavements and sparse buses. Almost every meal, attraction and round of golf means a drive, often through slow summer traffic on Kings Highway. In both towns you will need a car to arrive and to leave.

No sales tax and a real downtown give Rehoboth the edge for shopping. Myrtle Beach offers outlets, entertainment complexes and giant beach shops on the highway. The Market Common is the nearest it has to a town centre, and the sweetgrass baskets sold on the coast road are its one local craft.

Rehoboth has big outlet centres too, and Delaware's lack of sales tax draws shoppers from several states. In town, Rehoboth Avenue mixes independent boutiques, bookshops and galleries with the beachwear, which makes for a good afternoon's browsing on foot.

Myrtle Beach is the cheaper place to stay because it has so many hotel rooms, motels and condos, and many come with kitchens. Prices still jump in July and on long weekends, and a car is close to essential.

Rehoboth charges the rates of a well-off resort for summer rooms, rental houses, meals and parking, especially at weekends. In both towns, room prices drop sharply in spring and autumn.

Neither town has serious theatre or classical music, but the evenings are different. Myrtle Beach goes big, with large theatres staging country, gospel and Christmas revues, dinner shows with knights or pirates, and touring acts at its entertainment complex. Rehoboth is small and local: free concerts at the bandstand on summer evenings, musicals and cabaret from a local theatre company, and an autumn film festival.

In both towns rest is a matter of pace and season, and it has little to do with spas. In Myrtle Beach, that means heading for the quieter southern end around Pawleys Island in spring or autumn, away from the noisy, car-bound strip.

Rehoboth slows down more completely in June and September, and on autumn weekends. Walks on the empty boardwalk and bike rides under the pines then make it the slightly easier place to unwind. Neither town has a bathing tradition, only hotel and day spas.