Myrtle Beach or St. Augustine?

Both have the same kind of flat, pale Atlantic sand and the same warm summer sea, but at Myrtle Beach the beach is the destination itself. The Grand Strand runs about 100km, with piers and a boardwalk at the centre and dune-backed calm at Surfside, Garden City and the state parks, and most hotels open straight onto it.

St. Augustine's beaches on Anastasia Island, from the state park dunes down to Crescent Beach, are good but come second to the old town, a short drive across the Bridge of Lions. They suit a trip that mixes sightseeing with afternoons by the water. Myrtle Beach suits one spent almost entirely on the sand.

Neither is a place to travel for food, and in both seafood carries the menu. Myrtle Beach cooks for volume, with buffets and pancake houses along the strip, and its best meals are a drive away at the Murrells Inlet waterfront or in Calabash-style fry houses. St. Augustine has a more distinct local flavour in the Minorcan datil pepper, used in its spicy clam chowder and pilau, and a few chef-led places around the old town and San Marco give dinner a little more polish.

This is where the two part company most. St. Augustine has more than four centuries of history on the ground: the coquina Castillo de San Marcos on the bayfront, the lanes and walled gardens of the Spanish quarter, and the Gilded Age layer of Flagler College and the Lightner Museum, enough for two or three unhurried days.

Myrtle Beach grew up as a twentieth-century resort, and its sights lie mostly to the south of town: Brookgreen Gardens, with sculpture among live oaks on a former rice plantation, and the Moorish-style Atalaya. A single day covers them.

Myrtle Beach offers the bigger night out: beach bars and rooftop decks around the boardwalk, dance clubs in the entertainment complexes that stay open late, and the shag still danced in North Myrtle Beach's old Main Street clubs. It is loud and seasonal, and some weeks get rowdy.

St. Augustine's evenings are smaller and earlier, spent in courtyard pubs and cocktail bars around St. George Street and the bayfront. With almost no clubs, it suits a drink after dinner rather than dancing into the small hours.

The two share the same low coastal country of dunes, salt marsh and maritime forest, with no hills, and in both the summer heat sends walkers out early. Myrtle Beach adds the blackwater cypress swamps of the Waccamaw River, alligators and herons at Huntington Beach State Park, and dozens of golf courses.

St. Augustine's outdoors are more about water close to town: paddleboarding on the Anastasia lagoon, long marsh trails in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve and kayak trips among dolphins in the creeks, plus a coast road south that is good for cycling.

Both need a car for every outing, and both offer a modest list. From Myrtle Beach the standout is Charleston, a long day two hours south, with Georgetown's rice-culture history and Wilmington's riverfront nearer to hand.

St. Augustine's options are more varied in kind than in quality: Jacksonville's museums and gardens close by, Victorian Fernandina Beach, and long but popular days at Kennedy Space Center or the Orlando theme parks.

Myrtle Beach is built for children: gentle surf, resort pools with lazy rivers, the aquarium, the observation wheel on the boardwalk, water parks, an amusement park with a wooden coaster and pirate-themed mini-golf at every turn. The cost is driving everywhere and steering clear of spring break weeks.

St. Augustine works for families too, on a smaller scale. The Alligator Farm, the cannon firings at the Castillo and the lighthouse climb fill a few days nicely, but families after rides have to drive to Orlando.

Myrtle Beach is spread along multi-lane highways with few pavements, so walking is limited to the boardwalk blocks and the beach itself, and summer traffic on Kings Highway can be slow. A car is needed for almost everything else.

St. Augustine also depends on a car for the beaches and anything further away, but it has a walkable core. The fort, St. George Street, Flagler College and the bayfront are minutes apart on flat streets, and sightseeing trolleys loop past them, so most visitors park once and see the old town on foot.

Myrtle Beach has more shopping by sheer size: two large outlet centres, waterfront complexes, The Market Common with its town-centre feel, and enormous beachwear stores along the highway. St. Augustine has only one outlet mall, but its old town has more character. The galleries, antique dealers and craft shops of Aviles Street, along with the local datil-pepper sauces, make better souvenirs than the fudge and T-shirts of St. George Street. Neither is a place to come for fashion.

Myrtle Beach is the cheaper stay, thanks to its sheer stock of motels, hotels and condos, many with kitchens, and outside July and long weekends oceanfront rooms can be very good value.

In St. Augustine the historic inns and old-town hotels are in steady demand and climb steeply at weekends and in season, so savings mean a highway motel or a midweek visit. Meals, attractions and tipping cost much the same in both, and you will want a car either way.

Myrtle Beach goes for spectacle. Its large theatres stage country, gospel and Christmas revues, and there are dinner shows with knights or pirates, all polished and aimed at families.

St. Augustine's evenings lean more towards music: touring rock, country and folk acts at the open-air amphitheatre in the woods on Anastasia Island, and acoustic sets on old-town bar patios most nights. Neither town has opera, an orchestra season or serious theatre, so for those you would need to go to a bigger city.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and in both a spa day means hotel treatment rooms. The difference is the setting: Myrtle Beach's resort spas sit beside a loud summer strip, with real calm only around Pawleys Island or in spring and autumn, while St. Augustine offers quiet B&B verandas, courtyard gardens and an easy evening stroll along the bayfront seawall.