Pensacola or San Antonio?

This is the widest gap between the two. Pensacola has the very white quartz sand and clear green water of Santa Rosa Island, with long protected stretches in the Gulf Islands National Seashore. The quieter shore of Perdido Key and the calm, shallow water on the sound side are good for small children. In summer the sea is warm enough for hours in the water, although on rough days the rip-current flags need watching.

San Antonio has no beach at all, because the Gulf is a long drive away. What it offers instead is floating down the cool, spring-fed Comal and San Marcos rivers on an inner tube, along with lake and swimming-hole dips in the Hill Country. That makes a good summer afternoon, but not a beach vacation.

Pensacola eats from the Gulf: chargrilled oysters, grouper sandwiches, royal red shrimp and gumbo, best in casual places on the water. Beyond seafood and a few modern Southern kitchens around Palafox Street, the choice runs out quickly.

San Antonio gives you more to eat and more that is its own. Tex-Mex was born here, and the family places on the West and South Sides serve handmade flour tortillas, puffy tacos and Sunday barbacoa. Central Texas brisket and interior Mexican cooking add range, and the Pearl and Southtown add more ambitious cooking. It is a city you can plan meals around, which Pensacola rarely is.

Both cities have Spanish colonial roots, but San Antonio's are far grander. Its five 18th-century missions, including the Alamo, make up a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with San José's carved rose window and Espada's aqueduct as the highlights. Add the Governor's Palace, the King William mansions and two serious art museums, the San Antonio Museum of Art and the McNay.

Pensacola's history of five flags shows in the restored houses around Plaza Ferdinand and in the brick Fort Pickens. Its biggest draw is the National Naval Aviation Museum, which is excellent for anyone who loves aircraft, though access goes through an active base. It is enough for a good couple of days rather than a whole trip.

Neither city is a place for late nights, and the two are about even. Pensacola splits its evenings between the pubs and rooftop bars of Palafox Street and Seville Quarter, full of locals and young Navy personnel, and the sand-floored beach bars on the island, which feel like a party in summer.

San Antonio's evenings are less seasonal and more Texan. Visitors drink on the River Walk patios, while locals go to the open-sided icehouses, beer gardens and Tejano dance halls around the St. Mary's Strip, Southtown and the Pearl.

Pensacola has the richer outdoors, nearly all of it on or by the water. You can cycle and walk the boardwalks through dunes and salt marsh, watch for ospreys and dolphins, and paddle in the bay or on the clear Blackwater River. Experienced divers can explore the sunken aircraft carrier offshore.

San Antonio offers dry land instead: limestone hills, live oaks and caves. Government Canyon has hiking and mountain-bike trails, Natural Bridge Caverns lies to the north and the bluebonnets flower in spring. Its long, hot summers limit hiking, and it has no coastline to explore.

San Antonio has the better choice of drives out. Fredericksburg and the Texas wine country, the German towns of Gruene and Boerne, the cowboy town of Bandera and Austin are all within about an hour and a half.

Pensacola's best outing is Mobile, with its antebellum streets and battleship museum, and Fairhope across the bay. Going east brings you to Destin and Seaside, more beach towns much like the one you just left. Both cities need a car for nearly every trip.

San Antonio is better for children who want variety. It has SeaWorld, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, the zoo, the Witte Museum's dinosaurs, the hands-on DoSeum and easy boat rides on the River Walk, enough for a week of different days.

Pensacola is simpler, and for a beach-focused family that can suit very well. There is warm, calm water, shallow sound-side spots for toddlers and condos with kitchens. The aviation museum, the Blue Angels and the tunnels of Fort Pickens fill the days away from the sand, but there are no theme parks.

Getting around San Antonio without a car is easier, though only in the centre. The shaded River Walk links the Alamo, the cathedral, the hotels and the Pearl on foot. The bike path along the river runs to the missions, and the buses cover the main routes.

In Pensacola, only Palafox Street and the historic district are walkable. The beach, the naval air station and Perdido Key are spread out across bridges and highways, so a car is all but essential from the first day.

San Antonio has something worth shopping for. El Mercado in Market Square sells Mexican pottery, embroidered dresses and papel picado, and the city's specialist shops sell boots and Western hats. La Villita's galleries and the outlet centres to the north add more.

Pensacola has a few boutiques and antique shops on Palafox Street, the Saturday market, a regional mall and beachwear stalls on the island. That is fine for souvenirs, and not much more.

The two cost much the same, with San Antonio slightly cheaper day to day. Its plentiful convention hotels and inexpensive tacos and barbecue help, and the missions are free, though theme-park tickets quickly add up for a family. In Pensacola, beachfront rooms are expensive in summer but much cheaper out of season, and the aviation museum costs nothing. Budget for car hire in either city.

San Antonio has more on stage and more of its own sound. The Tobin Center hosts the symphony, opera and ballet, and the Majestic Theatre takes touring shows. Above all there is Tejano and conjunto, accordion dance music you can hear in dance halls and at Fiesta, with mariachi players around Market Square.

Pensacola puts much of its programme into the 1925 Saenger Theatre, which hosts its own symphony, opera and ballet. It makes a pleasant night out, but on a smaller, regional scale.

Neither city has a spa or bathing tradition, so relaxing comes down to the setting. In Pensacola that means an empty stretch of Perdido Key or the island outside summer, with hotel day spas as an extra. In San Antonio it means a Hill Country golf resort with a spa, or a slow morning in the Japanese Tea Garden.