Myrtle Beach or Virginia Beach?

Both have wide, pale Atlantic beaches with a boardwalk behind them, but Myrtle Beach has far more sand and warmer water. The Grand Strand runs for about 100km, so when the central blocks fill up you can drive to the dunes at Surfside, Garden City or the state parks. The midsummer sea is a few degrees warmer, and the season runs later into autumn.

Virginia Beach's Oceanfront strip is only about 5km long, but it offers more variety: surfing near the fishing pier, calm Chesapeake Bay water around First Landing for toddlers, and the rental houses of Sandbridge. Its swimming season starts later and ends sooner.

Neither is a place to travel for food, and both resort strips run on buffets, pancake houses and chains. The difference is in the seafood worth seeking out. Around Myrtle Beach, that means the dockside restaurants of Murrells Inlet and the lightly battered Calabash style just over the North Carolina line.

Virginia Beach's pride is Chesapeake produce: Lynnhaven oysters and blue crab, steamed with Old Bay or made into crab cakes, best eaten by the bay. Town Center has a few more polished dining rooms, and Norfolk's restaurants are half an hour away, which gives a longer stay a little more variety.

Neither city has much history in its streets, but Virginia Beach has more to see. Cape Henry, where English colonists first landed in 1607, and the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse give it a real place in the national story, and the Adam Thoroughgood House is a rare early colonial home.

Myrtle Beach is a twentieth-century resort, and its sights are mostly south of town. Brookgreen Gardens sets sculpture among live oaks and tells the story of the people enslaved on the former rice plantation, and the Moorish-style Atalaya stands next door. A single day covers them.

Both have the same loud, casual summer scene of beach bars and rooftop decks by the boardwalk, and both go quiet early out of season. Myrtle Beach stays out later, with themed bars and dance clubs in its entertainment complexes and the shag still danced along Main Street in North Myrtle Beach, though spring breaks and motorcycle rallies make some weeks rowdy.

Virginia Beach has little club life, and its summer crowd includes sailors from the navy bases. Town Center has cocktail bars and lounges for a quieter evening, and downtown Norfolk and Ghent are half an hour's drive away.

Golf and birdwatching lead the outdoors at Myrtle Beach. Dozens of courses line the Grand Strand, and the marsh boardwalks of Huntington Beach State Park put herons, ospreys and alligators within easy view. Paddling the cypress swamps of the Waccamaw River is the other draw, but there is no real hiking, and the summer humidity pushes most activity into the early morning.

Virginia Beach is the better choice if you want to cover ground under your own steam. Myrtle Beach's wild coast comes in small patches, but at First Landing you can walk for hours between swamp and dune where the bay meets the ocean. Further south, the marsh and empty beach of Back Bay and False Cape are a proper bike or hiking outing. The sea is livelier too: the city has a real surfing tradition, where Myrtle Beach's waves are usually small, and you can kayak out to the dolphins yourself rather than watching them from a cruise boat.

Virginia Beach has the better excursions. The Historic Triangle of Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown is about an hour away, and Norfolk's battleship and art museum, Kitty Hawk and Richmond are all within reach.

From Myrtle Beach the highlight is Charleston, but at about two hours each way it makes for a long day. Georgetown, Pawleys Island and Conway are closer and smaller. You need a car for day trips from either city.

Both were built for the American family beach vacation, and both work well with children. Myrtle Beach leans towards amusements: a seaside park with a wooden roller coaster, water parks, the observation wheel and themed mini-golf everywhere, plus resort hotels with lazy rivers and suites with kitchens.

Virginia Beach is more about learning and calm water. Its aquarium has sea turtles and otters, the gentle bay beaches suit toddlers, and Colonial Williamsburg and a large theme park are within an hour. At either, the summer heat and driving everywhere need some planning.

Myrtle Beach spreads along about 100km of highway on the Grand Strand, with multi-lane roads and few pavements or crossings, and its buses are of little use to visitors. Within the resort blocks and along the beach itself walking is easy, but almost every other outing means driving, often in slow summer traffic on Kings Highway.

Virginia Beach is a little easier without the car. Stay at the Oceanfront and you can walk or cycle the boardwalk and take the summer trolley along Atlantic Avenue. Sandbridge, First Landing and Town Center still mean a drive.

Myrtle Beach gives shoppers more to do. Two large outlet centres, waterfront complexes and the town-centre feel of The Market Common attract bargain hunters, and sweetgrass baskets are sold along the coast road to the south.

Virginia Beach has a regional mall, chain stores at Town Center and strip centres, with surf shops its one local strength. Neither has luxury streets or many independent boutiques.

Myrtle Beach is the cheaper place to stay. It has so many motels and condos that oceanfront rooms can be remarkably cheap outside summer, and the kitchens in many units cut food bills, although July and long weekends push prices up sharply.

Virginia Beach costs more in summer, when oceanfront hotels and beach houses are expensive, especially at weekends. The beach, boardwalk and state parks cost little or nothing, but at both places a car and American restaurant prices, with tipping, add to the bill.

Virginia Beach has the wider choice. It has an arts centre at Town Center, a summer amphitheatre for touring acts and free boardwalk concerts. Norfolk, half an hour away, adds the Virginia Opera, the Virginia Symphony and the spring Virginia Arts Festival.

Myrtle Beach specialises in big variety shows: country and gospel revues, Christmas shows and dinner shows with knights or pirates. They are polished and family-friendly, but there is no opera or orchestra.

Neither has a bathing tradition. At both, wellness means hotel spas and picking a quiet season, since high summer is crowded and loud. The difference is where to find calm: the slower southern end around Pawleys Island at Myrtle Beach, and early mornings on the boardwalk or the quieter north end at Virginia Beach.