Boca Raton or Gulf Shores?

These are two of the best beaches in their regions, with different characters. Boca Raton's Atlantic shore is a string of public beach parks reached over bridges, with low-rise dunes, sea grape shade at Spanish River Park and a reef at Red Reef Park close enough to snorkel from the sand. It feels calm and green, and the water is swimmable in every month.

Gulf Shores has one long, unbroken strand of squeaky white quartz sand running from Fort Morgan to the Florida line. In the busier stretches it is backed by condo towers, while Gulf State Park keeps a wilder edge of dunes. The Gulf there is clear and green in summer but only a walking beach in winter. Both coasts have real rip currents.

Boca Raton gives a little more range. Around Mizner Park and the main plazas you find steakhouses, Italian dining rooms, sushi and waterfront seafood, and the city's strong deli and bagel bakery tradition adds something of its own. Much of the rest is chains or upscale versions of the same formula, and Delray Beach is next door when you want more variety.

Gulf Shores eats almost entirely from the Gulf: Royal Red shrimp, oysters raw or chargrilled, snapper and gumbo with a Louisiana accent, mostly at open-air seafood shacks and big beach-bar restaurants. It is honest and satisfying, but there is hardly any fine dining or international cooking.

Neither is a culture destination, but Boca Raton has more to show. Addison Mizner's 1920s Mediterranean Revival town survives in stucco arcades, barrel-tile roofs and the Old Town Hall with its history museum, and there is an art museum in Mizner Park. The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, recalling an early Japanese farming colony, makes a genuinely memorable visit.

Gulf Shores has one real sight: Fort Morgan, the brick star fort that took part in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. It is worth a morning, and after it there is only a small local museum.

Both towns go to bed early, and neither has a club scene, but evenings out feel quite different. In Boca Raton a night out means wine bars, cocktail lounges and restaurant terraces around Mizner Park, with a later and louder crowd on Delray Beach's Atlantic Avenue fifteen minutes north.

Gulf Shores does its drinking barefoot, on open-air decks with frozen drinks and sand underfoot. The rowdy roadhouse on the state line at Perdido Key keeps going late, and spring break brings a younger crowd to the main beach strip.

Both landscapes are flat and centred on the water, so the difference lies in what you do there. Boca Raton looks east to the sea: snorkelling and diving on the nearshore reef, Gulf Stream charters for sailfish, paddling in the Intracoastal mangroves, and sea turtle night walks at Gumbo Limbo. The Loxahatchee refuge's alligators are about half an hour inland.

Gulf Shores is better on land and in the back bays. Gulf State Park's paved trails through maritime forest are excellent for cycling, Bon Secour draws migrating birds in spring and autumn, and dolphin cruises and the vast Mobile-Tensaw Delta swamp give it a wilder side.

Boca Raton's position in the middle of the Gold Coast gives it bigger names within reach. Palm Beach's Flagler Museum and Worth Avenue are to the north, Fort Lauderdale's canals to the south, and Miami's Art Deco district, Little Havana and Vizcaya can be reached without a car on the train. All of these are variations on the same coastal strip.

Gulf Shores has more modest outings, but more varied ones. Mobile has ironwork balconies and the battleship USS Alabama, and there are bayside Fairhope, Pensacola's naval aviation museum, Bellingrath Gardens and the car ferry to Dauphin Island. Every one of them needs a car.

Gulf Shores is the more natural choice with children. Families are the resort's core market, condos with kitchens and pools are the standard stay, and rainy or scorching afternoons are covered by a water park, a hands-on zoo, a Ferris wheel in Orange Beach and a theme park in Foley.

Boca Raton is safe and orderly, with lifeguarded beach parks, a gentle first snorkel at Red Reef, the sea turtle tanks at Gumbo Limbo and Sugar Sand Park's playgrounds. The bigger attractions are long drives away, though, and it works best with young children in winter and spring.

You will want a car in both. Boca Raton has two advantages: a walkable downtown around Mizner Park, and Tri-Rail and Brightline stations that make car-free days in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach realistic.

Gulf Shores is strung for miles along a single beach road, has almost no public transport, and gets heavy traffic over the bridges on summer weekends. Its compensation is the trail network inside Gulf State Park, which is good by bike.

Boca Raton treats shopping as a pastime. Its big enclosed mall carries leading department stores and a long run of designer labels, and Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place add palm-lined streets of boutiques and galleries. Polished and suburban, it lacks markets and local craft.

Gulf Shores offers beachwear and souvenir emporiums, fishing and surf shops, and an outlet mall in Foley that fills many a rainy day.

Gulf Shores is the easier on the wallet. Beach access and state park trails cost nothing, condo kitchens keep food bills down, and rentals fall sharply outside summer, which makes long winter stays common.

Boca Raton is one of the wealthiest towns on the Florida coast, with winter rates to match and charges for parking at the beach parks. Its seasons run the opposite way: Boca is cheapest in the hot, stormy summer, while Gulf Shores is dearest in June and July.

Boca Raton has the slightly fuller and more formal calendar. In winter there are open-air concerts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, Broadway-style musicals at a regional theatre, conservatory recitals at Lynn University and a local ballet, with the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach close by for opera and touring shows.

Gulf Shores runs on live music instead: bands and songwriters on beach-bar stages every day, a long-running November songwriters' festival at the state-line roadhouse, and touring country and rock acts at the Orange Beach amphitheatre in the warmer months.

Neither has a bathing tradition, but Boca Raton is better set up for a pampered rest. Its large resorts have full spas, day spas and yoga studios serve a health-conscious population, and the town's quiet order adds to the calm.

In Gulf Shores rest mostly comes from the pace. There are a few resort and day spas for a massage, but the real restorative is a slow week of sunsets from a condo balcony, ideally away from the busy summer weekends.