Orange Beach or St. Louis?

Orange Beach was built for the beach, and it delivers: a long strip of fine white sand on the Gulf, clear green water on calm days and sand that shelves gently enough for small children. Alabama Point and the adjoining state park give room away from the condo towers. Swimmers do need to watch the flags for rip currents.

St. Louis has nothing to compare. Its rivers are working waterways with strong currents, so cooling off in summer means a pool or a long drive to an Ozark lake.

St. Louis has the more interesting table. Toasted ravioli, Provel-topped cracker-crust pizza, serious ribs and gooey butter cake give it a local identity, the Hill keeps its Italian trattorias and South Grand adds Bosnian grills and Vietnamese and Ethiopian kitchens. The Soulard Market and a deep brewing tradition round it out.

Orange Beach does one thing well: Gulf seafood eaten by the water, from Royal Red shrimp and oysters to snapper and West Indies salad. Beyond a few good fish dinners, though, the choice soon repeats itself.

Orange Beach has almost nothing to see in town. A small museum of Native American and fishing history is about all there is, and every fort and old town on the coast means a drive.

St. Louis is the opposite, a city with two or three full days of sightseeing. You can ride the lift to the top of the Gateway Arch, see the Old Courthouse where the Dred Scott case began, and visit the free art and history collections in Forest Park. There are also the mosaics of the Cathedral Basilica and whole streets of red-brick Victorian houses in Soulard and Lafayette Square.

St. Louis has more variety after dark, spread across separate districts: blues bars and old taverns in Soulard, dance bars on Washington Avenue, the Grove for late nights and LGBTQ+ venues, and a student crowd on the Delmar Loop.

Orange Beach is about beach bars and waterfront decks, with the Flora-Bama roadhouse on the state line as its long-standing anchor. It gets loud in spring and summer but goes quiet the rest of the year, and it has no clubs. In both places you will need a taxi between stops.

Orange Beach has the edge for time outdoors, and most of it is on the water: kayaking and paddleboarding on the sheltered bays, dolphin cruises from Perdido Pass, charter fishing over the offshore reefs, and a paved trail through pine woods and marsh to Gulf State Park. Bon Secour refuge is good for birding during migration.

St. Louis offers greener, hillier country instead. Forest Park sits inside the city, and within an hour you reach the river bluffs and caves of Castlewood, the Katy Trail for cycling and bald eagles along the bluffs in winter. It is pleasant rather than memorable.

The day trips are about equally good, but they show different parts of the past. From Orange Beach you head along the coast to Pensacola's Spanish quarter and naval aviation museum, Mobile's antebellum streets, Fort Morgan or the ferry to Dauphin Island.

From St. Louis, the outings go further back and inland: the great earthworks of Cahokia Mounds just across the river, French colonial Ste. Genevieve, the German wine towns of Hermann and Augusta, and Mark Twain's Hannibal. Both lists need a car.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Orange Beach is a sandcastle vacation: condos with kitchens and pools, shallow water, dolphin boats and a Ferris wheel by the marina, all at a slow pace.

St. Louis is better for rainy days and older children who want attractions. The City Museum's climbing maze, the free zoo and Science Center and the Magic House keep families busy, and a ballgame at Busch Stadium makes an easy evening. In both, attractions are spread out and the summer heat needs planning around.

St. Louis is easier, though still built for drivers. MetroLink links the airport, the Central West End, Forest Park and downtown, a few districts can be walked on their own, and the roads and parking are painless.

Orange Beach is one long coastal highway with almost no useful public transport, so a car is needed for nearly everything, and summer traffic slows to a crawl. Bikes on the paved trails are the one good alternative.

Neither is worth a trip for shopping, but St. Louis gives a better afternoon of browsing: antiques, vintage and record shops on Cherokee Street, independent stores on the Delmar Loop and boutiques in the Central West End.

Orange Beach mostly sells swimwear, souvenirs and fishing gear, and visitors looking for brands drive inland to the outlet mall in Foley.

St. Louis is the slightly cheaper stay. Its hotels cost less than in the coastal cities, and the zoo, art museum, history museum and science centre are all free. A hire car is the main extra cost.

Orange Beach charges resort rates in summer and on long weekends, and a car comes on top. Groups sharing a condo kitchen bring the cost down, and from late autumn to early spring rates fall sharply.

St. Louis wins easily. The Saint Louis Symphony, founded in 1880, plays in the ornate Powell Hall, the Fabulous Fox hosts touring Broadway shows, the Muny stages musicals outdoors in Forest Park, and the Opera Theatre runs an early-summer festival. Add a blues heritage reaching from Chuck Berry to the National Blues Museum, and there is live music most nights.

Orange Beach offers touring country and rock acts at its marina amphitheatre, cover bands in the beach bars and the Frank Brown songwriters' festival each November, but no theatre or classical music.

Neither has a spa tradition. Orange Beach still makes the better place to unwind, because its pleasures are slow ones: empty morning beaches and sunsets over the back bays, best enjoyed outside spring break and summer weekends.

In St. Louis, relaxation means a quiet morning in the Japanese garden of the Missouri Botanical Garden or in Forest Park, with hotel spas and yoga studios in Clayton and the Central West End. It fills a gap between sights rather than a whole trip.