Myrtle Beach or St. Louis?

The gap here could hardly be wider. Myrtle Beach sits on the Grand Strand, roughly 100km of flat, pale sand with small waves and summer water warm enough to stay in for hours. The calmer, dune-backed stretches at Surfside and Garden City are there when the central blocks get crowded.

St. Louis is hundreds of kilometres inland, on rivers far too strong for swimming. Cooling off there means a pool or a long drive to an Ozark lake.

St. Louis eats better and more distinctively. It has toasted ravioli, thin-crust pizza with Provel cheese, gooey butter cake, serious ribs, family trattorias on the Hill, and Bosnian and Vietnamese cooking along South Grand, all in a city with deep brewing roots.

Myrtle Beach feeds crowds rather than food lovers. The strip runs to buffets, pancake houses and chains. For the best meals you have to drive out to Murrells Inlet for local shrimp and oysters, or north for Calabash-style fried seafood.

St. Louis has much more to see. Its sights include the Gateway Arch with its museum of westward expansion, the Old Courthouse where the Dred Scott case began, the free art museum in Forest Park, the mosaics of the Cathedral Basilica and the Wainwright Building, an early skyscraper. Soulard and Lafayette Square add whole streets of red-brick housing.

Myrtle Beach is a twentieth-century resort with about a day's worth of sights. The main ones are the sculpture among live oaks at Brookgreen Gardens and Atalaya, the Moorish-style winter house next door.

Neither city is a nightlife destination, and both go quiet early outside their busy seasons. The difference is in kind. Myrtle Beach goes out in one loud cluster around the boardwalk and the entertainment complexes, with beach bars, rooftop decks and dance clubs, plus the shag still danced in the old clubs of North Myrtle Beach.

St. Louis spreads across separate pockets: corner taverns in Soulard, dance bars on Washington Avenue, the Grove for late nights and LGBTQ+ venues, and students on the Delmar Loop. It is more local and varied, but expect to take taxis between areas.

The outdoors are about even, but the settings are very different. Myrtle Beach is flat coastal plain. It is best for birdwatching on the marsh boardwalks of Huntington Beach State Park, kayaking the cypress swamps of the Waccamaw, dolphin cruises and a great deal of golf, and there are no hills to climb.

St. Louis has proper hiking within an hour, along the river bluffs and caves of Castlewood and Meramec. You can also cycle the Katy Trail or watch bald eagles near Alton in winter. In both places, summer humidity pushes activity to the cooler hours or seasons.

Both cities need a car for every outing, and both have a good spread of trips. From Myrtle Beach the best day out is Charleston, with its antebellum streets and harbour forts, a long two hours south. Georgetown's old rice port and the beach village of Pawleys Island are closer to hand.

St. Louis leans further into history and has its finest trip almost on the doorstep: Cahokia Mounds, the great pre-Columbian city, is twenty minutes away. French colonial Ste. Genevieve, the German wine towns of Hermann and Augusta and Lincoln's Springfield are also within easy reach.

Myrtle Beach is the easier family choice, because the whole resort is built for it. It has gentle surf, hotels with lazy rivers and kitchen suites, an aquarium, water parks, a wooden roller coaster and endless themed mini-golf. Just avoid spring break weeks and the rowdier oceanfront blocks at night.

St. Louis comes closer than most cities. Children love the climbable tunnels and slides of the City Museum, the zoo and Science Center in Forest Park are free, and the tram pods up the Arch are a thrill. Still, it gives you a few lively days in a city rather than a week of play by the sea.

You'll want a car in both, but St. Louis is the less awkward of the two. MetroLink connects the airport, Forest Park, the Central West End and downtown. The main districts are walkable on their own, and the roads are uncongested with easy parking.

Myrtle Beach strings everything along the length of the Grand Strand on multi-lane highways with few pavements. Buses are of little use, and summer traffic on Kings Highway can crawl. On foot you are limited to the blocks around the boardwalk and the beach itself.

Neither place is worth a trip for the shopping, but they suit different shoppers. Myrtle Beach is for bargains and beachwear: two big outlet centres, waterfront complexes, the Market Common and huge swimwear shops. The one local craft is the sweetgrass baskets sold along the coast road south.

St. Louis is for browsing independent shops. There are antiques, vintage and records on Cherokee Street, student shops on the Delmar Loop and boutiques in the Central West End, while the big names sit out in the suburban malls.

Myrtle Beach is the cheaper stay, as long as you avoid July and long weekends. The sheer number of motels and condos keeps rooms cheap out of season, and kitchens let you cook for yourself.

St. Louis hotels are modest for an American city, and the free museums, zoo and science centre in Forest Park offset a good deal. In both places, tips and tax are added to every meal out, and a hire car is close to essential.

St. Louis is far stronger. A symphony founded in 1880 plays in Powell Hall, and touring Broadway shows come to the Fabulous Fox. The Muny stages musicals in the open air in Forest Park, and an opera festival runs each early summer. The city's blues lineage, from Chuck Berry to W.C. Handy, is honoured at the National Blues Museum downtown.

Myrtle Beach offers polished family variety instead: country and gospel revues, Christmas shows, dinner shows with knights or pirates and cover bands in the beach bars.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and both offer only hotel and day spas. Myrtle Beach has the edge for rest because of the sea. It has resort spas, long beach walks and the quiet southern shore around Pawleys Island in spring or autumn, though the main strip in summer is anything but calm.

In St. Louis the calm comes from green spaces instead, such as a slow morning in Forest Park or in the Japanese garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden.