Boca Raton or Charleston?

Both cities have Atlantic sand, but Boca Raton has the better beaches for swimming. Its public beach parks on the barrier island have soft pale sand, clearer water and little high-rise building, and at Red Reef Park the reef is shallow enough to snorkel from the shore. The sea is warm all year.

Charleston's beaches lie on separate islands about half an hour from town, and each has its own character, from surfy Folly Beach with its pier to quiet Sullivan's Island with old forts behind the dunes. The water is greener and churned by the tides, and swimming runs only from late spring into autumn.

Charleston is much the better place to eat. Lowcountry cooking, with shrimp and grits, she-crab soup and Carolina Gold rice dishes rooted in Gullah Geechee traditions, gives it a cuisine of its own. You can eat it in fine dining rooms in old townhouses, at whole-hog barbecue joints and at the seafood shacks on Shem Creek.

Boca Raton eats well but in a generic way, mostly at the steakhouses, sushi bars and Italian restaurants of Mizner Park and the shopping plazas. Its local strengths are stone crab in season and its Jewish delis and bagel bakeries.

Charleston gives you a whole historic town to walk through: the Georgian and antebellum streets south of Broad, Rainbow Row, house museums that show the quarters of enslaved people alongside the grand rooms, and Fort Sumter out in the harbour. That fills two or three days well.

Boca Raton's history begins with Addison Mizner's Mediterranean Revival buildings of the 1920s. Beyond the art museum and the Morikami gardens there is little to see, and anyone travelling for culture ends up driving to Palm Beach or Miami.

Neither city is worth choosing for its nightlife, but Charleston gives you more of an evening out. Rooftop bars, cocktail rooms and oyster bars fill Upper King Street at weekends, and the French Quarter has quieter old taverns. In Boca Raton a night out usually means dinner and a glass of wine around Mizner Park, and anyone who wants to stay out late goes to Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach or further south.

Both cities sit on flat coast where the outdoors is mostly about water, but the water is very different. Boca Raton has reef snorkelling and diving, sport fishing in the Gulf Stream and paddling through the mangroves, plus sea turtle walks at Gumbo Limbo and alligators in the Loxahatchee refuge.

Charleston's setting is tidal marsh and live oak forest, best seen by kayak, often with dolphins close by, and there are quiet trails in the Francis Marion National Forest and the ACE Basin. The best season for the outdoors is winter in Boca Raton and spring or autumn in Charleston.

With a car, both cities make good bases, but the days out are different. From Boca Raton you visit other cities along the same coast: Palm Beach and the Flagler Museum, the canals of Fort Lauderdale, or a full day in Miami, which you can also reach by train.

From Charleston the outings are about history. The Ashley River plantations and McLeod Plantation are about half an hour away, and Savannah and the Gullah sea islands around Beaufort are further out.

Both are calm, easy places to bring children, but they suit different ages. Boca Raton's lifeguarded beach parks, the gentle snorkelling at Red Reef and the turtles at Gumbo Limbo work well for younger children, and the sea is warm enough for them even in winter.

Charleston has more for school-age children: the aquarium and children's museum on the waterfront, the aircraft carrier at Patriots Point and the boat out to Fort Sumter. In both cities, summer afternoons are hard going with children.

Charleston is much easier without a car, at least in the old town. The historic peninsula is compact and flat, most sights are within about 3km, and a free shuttle and pedicabs cover the gaps.

Boca Raton is built around wide roads and long distances, and only the area around Mizner Park is pleasant on foot. Its advantage is the Tri-Rail and Brightline trains to Fort Lauderdale and Miami, which Charleston has nothing to match. In both cities you need a car or ride-hailing to reach the beaches.

Shopping is about as rewarding in both cities but very different in kind. Boca Raton is the place for designer labels and large department stores, in its upscale enclosed mall and along the open-air streets of Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place.

Charleston has no luxury tier but more character. King Street runs from antiques dealers on lower King to independent boutiques further up, and at City Market Gullah artisans weave and sell sweetgrass baskets.

Boca Raton's prices follow the seasons. From December to April its hotels and resorts charge as much as major international cities, while summer rooms are far cheaper, and the price of that is heat and afternoon storms. Whatever the month, a hire car or ride-hailing and the parking fees at the beach parks add to the bill.

Charleston costs about as much overall but stays expensive all year, with peninsula inns at their dearest on spring and autumn weekends and paid house and plantation tours adding up. Its saving is that much of the best is free, from the old streets and the Battery to the beaches, and a room in Mount Pleasant costs less if you are willing to drive in each day.

Charleston has more to see on stage, mostly because of Spoleto Festival USA, which brings over two weeks of opera, dance, theatre and jazz every late spring. The rest of the year, the Dock Street Theatre, the symphony at the Gaillard Center and Gullah song and storytelling keep a steady programme going.

Boca Raton's arts season is winter, with open-air concerts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, recitals at the Lynn University conservatory and regional musicals. For bigger productions, people go up the road to the Kravis Center.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so resting in either means hotel spas and a slow pace. Boca Raton suits a stay built around the pool and massages at its large resort hotels. Charleston's calm comes from its walled gardens, church courtyards and evenings at White Point Garden, with resort spas out on Kiawah Island.