Boca Raton or Panama City Beach?

Both are serious beach places, and Panama City Beach has a slight edge on the sand itself: about 43km of powder-white quartz, shallow green Gulf water, and wild stretches in St. Andrews State Park and on Shell Island, reached by boat. Its catch is the season, since the water turns cold in winter.

Boca Raton's shore is shorter and more managed, a chain of beach parks over the bridges with dunes, sea grape and little high-rise building. Its strengths are a reef at Red Reef Park that you can snorkel from the sand and an Atlantic that stays swimmable all year. Both coasts have rip currents, so watch the flags.

Boca Raton eats better, though without much local character. Steakhouses, Italian dining rooms and sushi fill Mizner Park and the plazas, stone crab and Key lime pie add a Florida touch, and the Jewish delis and bagel bakeries are a real tradition. Delray Beach's Atlantic Avenue is next door when you want more variety.

Panama City Beach keeps it simple: fried or blackened grouper, shrimp baskets and bay oysters at dockside shacks, with chains and themed restaurants making up most of the rest. It is good for a sandy-feet seafood lunch and not much else.

Neither city is a culture trip, but Boca Raton at least has a story to show. Addison Mizner's 1920s Mediterranean Revival stucco and barrel tiles survive in the Old Town Hall and the pink-towered hotel, there is a decent art museum in Mizner Park, and the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens just north is well worth an afternoon.

Panama City Beach is almost entirely post-war condos and attractions. The small Man in the Sea Museum on diving history and the older streets of St. Andrews across the bay are about all there is.

Both cities go quiet early, but the nights feel different. In Boca Raton an evening means dinner followed by a glass in a wine bar or cocktail lounge around Mizner Park, and Delray Beach's livelier Atlantic Avenue is fifteen minutes away.

Panama City Beach drinks outdoors at tiki huts and beach-bar decks over the sand, with cover bands and some summer dancing. In March spring break turns the strip loud and rowdy, while in winter many bars barely open.

Both landscapes are flat and the outdoors mostly means water, so the difference lies in the setting. Boca Raton has mangrove-lined Intracoastal paddling, sea turtle night walks at Gumbo Limbo, Gulf Stream fishing for sailfish, and alligators and wading birds in the Loxahatchee refuge half an hour inland.

Panama City Beach offers tall white dunes and pine flatwoods in St. Andrews State Park, a rare coastal dune lake at Camp Helen, dolphin-watching trips on the bay and dives on offshore wrecks.

Boca Raton sits in the middle of a run of well-known cities. Palm Beach's Flagler Museum and Worth Avenue, Fort Lauderdale's canals and a full day in Miami are all within about an hour, and the trains reach several of them without a car.

From Panama City Beach the outings are fewer and further apart, and every one needs a car. The pastel planned towns along Scenic Highway 30A are the best of them, with the old oyster port of Apalachicola and Pensacola's historic district as longer drives.

Panama City Beach is built for children. Shallow summer water, the sheltered lagoon at St. Andrews, a big water park, dolphin shows, go-karts and mini-golf are all along one road, and a condo with a pool is the standard stay.

Boca Raton is calmer and very safe, with lifeguarded beach parks, the turtle tanks at Gumbo Limbo and the trails of Sugar Sand Park. The bigger days out, though, mean long drives. Its advantage is winter, when the sea is still warm and Panama City Beach's is not.

Plan on a car in either place. Boca Raton has two things in its favour: a downtown around Mizner Park that is pleasant on foot, and commuter and intercity trains that make car-free trips to Miami and West Palm Beach realistic.

Panama City Beach is one 43km strip with a slow, sparse trolley bus, patchy pavements and summer traffic that can crawl along Front Beach Road.

Shopping is a real reason to visit Boca Raton. Its enclosed mall carries luxury and designer labels that draw people from across the region, Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place add open-air boutique streets, and Worth Avenue in Palm Beach is an easy outing. It is polished rather than original.

Panama City Beach offers Pier Park's chain stores, surf shops and souvenir warehouses with shark-mouth entrances. For anything more individual you drive to the 30A boutiques.

Panama City Beach is the cheaper trip. Condos with kitchens keep food costs down, and outside summer and spring break rates fall sharply, with long winter stays especially good value. You still pay American resort prices for meals, attractions and the car.

Boca Raton is among the wealthiest towns on the Florida coast, and in winter its rooms and restaurants are priced to match, with paid beach parking on top. Summer brings rates down, but in return you get heat and storms.

Boca Raton has a modest but genuine season: open-air concerts and the Festival of the Arts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, Broadway-style musicals, conservatory recitals and a ballet company. The Kravis Center in West Palm Beach is close enough for opera and touring shows, although the calendar thins in summer.

In Panama City Beach live performance mostly means cover bands on restaurant decks, with a restored theatre across the bay for the occasional touring show.

Neither has a bathing tradition, but Boca Raton is the better place to switch off. Large resort spas, yoga studios and a quiet, orderly pace all year suit a vacation built around the pool, a massage and early nights.

Panama City Beach has only a few resort and day spas. Its calm depends on the season: the empty autumn and winter beach is lovely for sunset walks, while summer and spring break are loud and crowded.