Boca Raton or Fort Myers?

Both coasts have soft, pale sand, but the seas are different. Boca Raton's beach parks sit on its own barrier island, a few minutes from downtown, backed by dunes and sea grape instead of towers. At Red Reef Park you can snorkel a reef straight off the sand, and the water is warm enough to swim all year.

Fort Myers' beaches are on the islands, half an hour's drive or more away. The Gulf there is shallow and has almost no waves, which is ideal for weak swimmers. Instead of a reef it has shelling on Sanibel and Captiva, and Fort Myers Beach has a busier strip of beach bars than Boca's quiet parks.

Neither city is a food destination, and the difference is mostly style. Boca Raton is the more upmarket of the two, with steakhouses, Italian dining rooms and sushi around Mizner Park, and a strong tradition of delis and bagel bakeries.

Fort Myers is barefoot by comparison: grouper sandwiches and peel-and-eat shrimp on decks over the water at sunset, and craft breweries in the River District.

Boca Raton's most memorable cultural visit is just north of town at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, which tell the story of an early 1900s Japanese farming colony. In town, Addison Mizner's 1920s Mediterranean Revival stucco and barrel tiles give the place its look, and the Old Town Hall history museum and the art museum in Mizner Park fill a few more hours.

Fort Myers centres on the Edison and Ford Winter Estates, a half day of riverside homes, laboratory and gardens at the end of palm-lined McGregor Boulevard. The River District's early twentieth-century brick streets make a short walk, and after that the city's sights are mostly done.

Evenings are quiet in both, but they happen in different settings. In Boca Raton a night out means dinner, wine bars and cocktail lounges around Mizner Park. For a later night, Delray Beach's Atlantic Avenue is a short drive away.

In Fort Myers, evenings split between the River District pubs and the beach bars by the pier on Fort Myers Beach. Those fill up for sunset and get loud with spring-breakers in March.

Fort Myers is the stronger choice for the outdoors. The Ding Darling refuge on Sanibel is one of the best places in the country to see wading birds, and Corkscrew Swamp has old-growth cypress. Paddling the mangrove tunnels of the Great Calusa Blueway is the main activity, with dolphins in the bays and manatees in winter.

Boca Raton offers less, and most of it is on the sea: reef snorkelling and diving, Gulf Stream fishing for sailfish, kayaking on the Intracoastal and sea turtle walks at Gumbo Limbo. Loxahatchee gives a taste of the Everglades, but it's half an hour's drive away.

Boca Raton is better placed for day trips. Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Delray Beach are all within forty minutes. Miami's South Beach, Little Havana and Vizcaya make a full day out, and you can get there by train as well as by car.

From Fort Myers the outings are smaller and further apart: Naples, the island villages of Sanibel, Captiva and Boca Grande, and the Koreshan settlement. Sarasota's Ringling museum is the cultural highlight, but it's an hour and a half each way, and like everything else on the list it needs a car.

Both cities work well with children, so the choice comes down to the kind of beach day you want. Boca Raton has lifeguarded parks, a shallow reef for a first snorkel and the sea turtles at Gumbo Limbo, with Lion Country Safari an hour away.

Fort Myers has the calmer Gulf, shell hunting on Sanibel, dolphin and manatee spotting, and spring-training baseball in March. Its winter water is cooler for small swimmers, though.

Plan on a car in either place. The difference is that Boca Raton has Tri-Rail and Brightline stations, so you can reach Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach without driving, and its beaches are a short hop over the bridges.

Fort Myers has no rail link of this kind. Its beaches and Sanibel are further out, and in winter traffic over the bridges backs up badly.

Shopping is a real reason to visit Boca Raton. Its enclosed mall is among the most upscale in Florida, with designer labels and leading department stores. Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place add open-air boutiques and galleries, and Worth Avenue in Palm Beach is close by.

Fort Myers is about bargains rather than labels, with big open-air centres and an outlet mall towards Estero. The most enjoyable browsing is in the gift shops, galleries and shell shops along Sanibel's Periwinkle Way and in Captiva.

Fort Myers makes it easier to keep costs down. Beachfront rooms on Sanibel are expensive in winter, but staying in town or near the interstate is much cheaper. Its main attractions, the beaches and nature reserves, cost little.

Boca Raton is one of the wealthiest towns on the coast, and in winter its hotels and restaurants charge accordingly. The beach parks also charge visitors for parking. Prices in both places drop sharply in summer, and both add the cost of a car.

For touring Broadway shows, opera and major orchestras, Boca Raton audiences drive to West Palm Beach or Miami. At home they have open-air concerts and the Festival of the Arts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, recitals from the Lynn University conservatory and a local ballet company.

In Fort Myers, the big touring musicals and headline acts come to the Barbara B. Mann hall in town. A repertory company plays in a restored 1908 theatre and a regional symphony gives concerts, while bands in the beach bars fill the gaps. The programme in both places goes quiet in summer.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so resting means pools and resort spa treatments in both. Boca Raton has the edge, with full spas in its large resorts and more day spas and yoga studios, serving a health-conscious local crowd.

Fort Myers has only its resort spas. What it offers instead is the slow pace of Sanibel and Captiva, with low buildings, bike paths and early nights.