Pigeon Forge or Wilmington?

In Pigeon Forge, swimming means the shores of Douglas Lake, the boulder pools in mountain streams or the water park beside Dollywood. It is not a place to come for a beach.

Wilmington has three different beaches. Wrightsville has wide pale sand and a fishing pier, Carolina Beach has a boardwalk and a family crowd, and Kure is quieter. On all of them the Atlantic is warm from late May into October. You do need to drive out from downtown and watch for rip currents.

Wilmington eats much better. The coast supplies shrimp, flounder and oysters for raw bars and plates of shrimp and grits, and the region's whole-hog barbecue has real local roots. Downtown has modern Southern kitchens in old brick buildings and a lively brewery district.

In Pigeon Forge, the food is mostly big portions along the Parkway: all-day pancakes, fried-chicken buffets and chain steakhouses. Moonshine tastings and the cornmeal treats from the Old Mill are the only real local touches. For a serious meal you would have to drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

Pigeon Forge has little history to show. Most of its sights were built as entertainment, such as the half-scale Titanic replica, the illusion museums and the car collections. The real heritage is the Old Mill of 1830, which still grinds flour by the river, along with the crafts at Dollywood and the old log cabins and churches out in the national park.

Wilmington has much more history to see. Its large historic district runs back from the Cape Fear River, and the Bellamy Mansion and the Burgwin-Wright House tell the story of the port's wealth and of the enslaved people who built it. The Battleship North Carolina is moored across the river, and two or three days is enough to see the lot.

Wilmington is the place for a night out. On weekends the bars, rooftop terraces and pubs around Front Street fill with students and locals until the 2am close, and the beach towns add bars on the sand in summer. Don't expect real clubs.

In Pigeon Forge, the evening is a family affair of dinner shows and lit-up go-kart tracks, mostly finished by about ten. Adults who want a drink end up in a brewpub or a moonshine tasting room, or drive over to Gatlinburg.

Pigeon Forge sits next to one of the great mountain parks in the eastern United States. The Smokies offer waterfall trails such as Laurel Falls, the steep climb on Alum Cave and the drive over Newfound Gap. Black bears and wild turkey are easy to spot in Cades Cove, and spring wildflowers and October colour add to the draw.

Wilmington's nature is low and wet: tidal creeks, salt marsh and longleaf pine. Masonboro Island is excellent by kayak, and Carolina Beach State Park has wild Venus flytraps. There are no hills to hike.

The two are about level for day trips, but the trips feel very different. From Pigeon Forge they head into the mountains and up to the cities: Cherokee over Newfound Gap, Knoxville's Market Square, and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, which fills a whole day.

From Wilmington the outings follow the coast. You can take the ferry from Southport to car-free Bald Head Island, see the earthworks at Fort Fisher, or go further to colonial New Bern and the old port of Beaufort.

Pigeon Forge is built for children and does it more completely. Dollywood has rides, crafts and seasonal festivals, the water park covers summer, and the Parkway is full of mini-golf, mountain coasters and zip lines. Big cabins and water-park hotels make group stays easy, though the traffic between stops wears thin.

Wilmington works best with children in summer, when the beaches and the boardwalk rides at Carolina Beach do most of the work. On rainy days there are the aquarium at Fort Fisher, the decks of the battleship and the Children's Museum.

You'll need a car in both, but Wilmington has the advantage of a downtown you can explore on foot. The flat historic district and the riverwalk are pleasant to walk, even though the beaches are 15km or more away and buses are rare.

Pigeon Forge is a multi-lane strip with nowhere worth walking outside the attraction complexes. The Parkway trolley is slow and doesn't reach the cabins, and the park trailheads can only be reached by car.

Neither is a shopping destination, but the shopping differs. Pigeon Forge has big outlet centres for American mid-market brands, plus real mountain crafts: quilts and pottery around the Old Mill, and brooms, baskets and woodwork from the studios above Gatlinburg.

Wilmington is more for browsing. Front Street and the Cotton Exchange have independent boutiques, bookshops, galleries and antique dealers, and the beach towns sell surf wear.

Costs are broadly similar, but the money goes on different things. In Pigeon Forge lodging is cheap, especially a large cabin split between families, and breakfasts are inexpensive. The bills come from theme park tickets, dinner shows and paid activities.

In Wilmington the city's hotels are reasonable out of season and casual seafood is fair value. Beachfront rooms and rental houses cost much more in summer, and in both places you will need a hire car.

The two are level for live performance, but the shows are completely different. Pigeon Forge puts on broad, sentimental family entertainment every night: country and gospel revues, comedy and magic, and dinner shows with horses or pirate ships. Dollywood adds bluegrass on its stages during the day.

Wilmington is more grown-up. Thalian Hall, a restored 19th-century opera house, hosts theatre and touring acts, and the city has a community symphony. Outdoor stages by Greenfield Lake and long-running jazz and blues festivals fill the warmer months.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so for both, relaxation comes from the setting rather than from spas. In Pigeon Forge that means a hillside cabin high above the strip, with a porch, a fireplace and a private hot tub facing the ridges. Wilmington offers a slow town, calm evenings on the waterfront, yoga studios and quiet beaches outside the summer weekends.