Myrtle Beach or Savannah?

Myrtle Beach is built on the sand. The Grand Strand runs for about 100km of wide, flat beach right outside the hotel door. When the central blocks feel too crowded, there are calmer stretches backed by dunes at Surfside, Garden City and the state parks to the south.

Savannah has no beach of its own. Tybee Island, half an hour's drive away, has the same warm summer sea and broad, flat sand in a low-key beach town, but it is a day out rather than the setting for the whole stay. In both places the water is greenish rather than clear.

Savannah eats better. Both cities serve the same Lowcountry dishes, such as shrimp and grits and she-crab soup. In Savannah they come from family-style Southern dining rooms and a small group of chef-led kitchens in restored townhouses around the historic district and south of Forsyth Park, with oysters roasted over fire in the cooler months.

In Myrtle Beach the strip is given over to seafood buffets, pancake houses and chains. The best meals mean driving out to the waterfront at Murrells Inlet, or north across the state line for Calabash-style fried fish.

Here the gap is wide. In Savannah the whole historic district is the attraction: Oglethorpe's grid of garden squares, Federal and Greek Revival houses, Factors Walk, the Telfair Museums and the Owens-Thomas House, with Bonaventure Cemetery further out. Together they easily fill two days of walking.

Myrtle Beach is a twentieth-century resort with little of its past on show. Brookgreen Gardens, with sculpture among live oaks on an old rice plantation, and the Moorish-style Atalaya next door make a good day out, and that is most of it.

Savannah has the more enjoyable evenings, and they are built on wandering. You can carry a drink in a to-go cup between the cobbled bars of River Street, the taverns around City Market and quieter cocktail rooms in old townhouses, and art students keep a few dive bars busy. Apart from St Patrick's Day, the city winds down fairly early.

Myrtle Beach is louder and more seasonal. In summer it has beach bars, rooftop decks and a cluster of dance clubs in the entertainment complexes that stay open late. Its local speciality is the shag, a beach dance still danced in the Main Street clubs of North Myrtle Beach, and out of season much of the scene closes early.

Both sit on a flat Lowcountry coast without a hill in sight, and both are best explored on the water and in spring or autumn. Myrtle Beach has dozens of golf courses, birding boardwalks and alligators at Huntington Beach State Park, and kayaking through the cypress swamps of the Waccamaw River.

In Savannah the salt marsh comes closer to town. It offers paddling on the tidal creeks, wood storks and herons, the avenue of oaks at Wormsloe and a cycle path out to Tybee.

For both cities the best day out is Charleston, about two hours' drive away (south of Myrtle Beach, north of Savannah), and both need a car for nearly every trip. Savannah has more within easy reach: Beaufort and Hilton Head in an hour or less, Fort Pulaski for a half day, and Jekyll Island and St Simons further down the Georgia coast.

The trips closer to Myrtle Beach are smaller in scale: the old rice port of Georgetown, the beach village on Pawleys Island and the riverwalk in Conway, with Wilmington and Southport further north.

For children, Myrtle Beach is the obvious pick. Gentle surf, resort hotels with lazy rivers and kitchen suites, the large aquarium, water parks, the wooden roller coaster and endless themed mini-golf are all close at hand. Avoid spring break weeks, and avoid the rowdier oceanfront blocks at night.

Savannah is fine with children, though it is not built for them. It has trolley tours, the free river ferry, ghost walks for older children, the birthplace of the Girl Scouts' founder and the sea-turtle centre on Tybee. There is no zoo, aquarium or theme park, and the summer heat makes walking tours tiring for small children.

Savannah's historic district is flat and compact enough to explore on foot, and a free shuttle and a small river ferry fill the gaps. You only need a car for Tybee, Wormsloe and Bonaventure.

Myrtle Beach is the opposite. Its attractions are strung out along multi-lane highways with few pavements, the buses are of little use to visitors, and summer traffic on Kings Highway crawls. Beyond the boardwalk blocks and the beach itself, plan on driving everywhere.

Neither city is a reason to go shopping, and they offer different kinds. Myrtle Beach is about bargains and bulk: two big outlet centres, waterfront complexes that mix chain stores with attractions, The Market Common on the old air base, and huge beach shops full of inflatables.

Savannah is for browsing. Broughton Street has restored storefronts, other shops sell work by the art school's students and graduates, and there are antique dealers and bookshops around the squares, with pralines and hot sauce on River Street.

Myrtle Beach is the cheaper stay. It has a huge number of motels, hotels and rental condos, many with kitchens, and oceanfront rooms can be very cheap outside the summer peak, though prices climb sharply in July and on long weekends. Savannah's historic-district inns are priced for a popular weekend destination, and spring weekends cost more still.

Savannah makes some of this back because its main pleasures cost nothing: the squares, Forsyth Park and the cemeteries are free. In Myrtle Beach the attractions, shows and golf soon add up. In both, eating out comes with tax and tip, and a car is usually part of the budget.

Savannah has the more interesting programme, as long as you time your visit right. The Savannah Music Festival brings chamber music, jazz, blues and Americana to historic theatres and churches in spring. The restored Lucas and Trustees theatres host touring shows, and there is a local philharmonic orchestra and an autumn jazz festival in Forsyth Park.

Myrtle Beach's shows are bigger but narrower in range: polished country, gospel and Christmas revues, dinner shows with knights or pirates, and touring country and rock acts. They suit a family night out, but there is no orchestra or serious drama.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and both rely on hotel spas, so the difference is pace. Savannah's historic district is unhurried by nature, with benches under the oaks and inn courtyards and porches made for doing nothing. It is most restful midweek in spring or autumn, staying on a quiet southern square.

In summer, Myrtle Beach's main strip is loud and full of traffic. Rest there means heading to the quieter southern end around Pawleys Island, or coming in spring or autumn.