Boca Raton or Savannah?

Boca Raton is by far the better beach destination of the two. Its public parks on the barrier island, South Beach, Red Reef and Spanish River, have soft pale sand backed by dunes and sea grape rather than tower blocks. There is a reef you can snorkel from the shore, and clear water that stays warm enough to swim even in winter.

Savannah has no beach of its own, and Tybee Island is about half an hour's drive away. Its wide, flat sand is good for long walks and for children paddling, but the water is greenish-brown from the marshes and too cool for most people from December to March. It works as one relaxed day out rather than the heart of the stay.

Savannah has the more rewarding food because it has a cuisine of its own: shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Lowcountry boil, oysters roasted in the cooler months and family-style Southern dining rooms. A handful of chef-led restaurants in restored townhouses cover a special dinner.

Boca Raton eats well but without much character, in the steakhouses, Italian dining rooms and sushi places of Mizner Park and the roadside plazas. Its local touches are stone crab in season, Key lime pie and a strong deli and bagel tradition. For more variety, people drive up to Delray Beach.

The gap here is wide. In Savannah the town is the sight: the grid of live-oak squares, ironwork balconies, the cathedral, Factors Walk, the Telfair Museums and the Owens-Thomas House, with its honest account of slavery, easily fill two or three days of walking.

Boca Raton's history starts with the 1920s land boom. Addison Mizner's Mediterranean Revival stucco, the Old Town Hall museum and the art museum in Mizner Park make a pleasant morning. The Morikami gardens just to the north are the best visit, and serious sightseeing means a trip to Palm Beach or Miami.

Savannah has the livelier evenings. You can carry a drink in a to-go cup through the historic district, so a night drifts from River Street's cobbled bars to the taverns around City Market, and art students keep a few dive bars and dance nights going. St Patrick's Day turns the whole city into a street party.

In Boca Raton an evening means dinner and a glass in a Mizner Park wine bar, and most of the city is quiet before midnight. Delray Beach's Atlantic Avenue is the nearest street that stays open late.

Both sit in flat coastal country where the outdoors means water, so the difference is in kind. Boca Raton's is subtropical and marine: snorkelling and diving on the nearshore reef, Gulf Stream fishing charters, paddling through mangroves on the Intracoastal, turtle walks at Gumbo Limbo and alligators in the Loxahatchee refuge.

Savannah's is salt marsh: kayaking the tidal creeks at high tide, dolphin-spotting boat trips, wading birds, the oak avenue at Wormsloe and the trails on Skidaway Island. Spring and autumn are its outdoor seasons, while Boca Raton's winter is ideal for walking and cycling the coast road.

Both make good bases for day trips, but of different kinds. From Boca Raton everything lies along one built-up coast: Palm Beach's Flagler Museum and Worth Avenue, Fort Lauderdale's canals, and Miami's Art Deco and Little Havana, which the Tri-Rail and Brightline trains reach without a car.

From Savannah the trips go to historic towns and islands: Charleston two hours away, Beaufort and Hilton Head closer, Fort Pulaski on the Tybee road, and Jekyll and St Simons down the Georgia coast. There is more variety, but nearly all of it needs a car.

Boca Raton is the easier place with children. Lifeguarded beach parks with shade and picnic tables, a gentle first snorkel at Red Reef, the sea turtles at Gumbo Limbo, the Children's Science Explorium and the playgrounds of Sugar Sand Park fill a week, and the city is orderly and safe.

Savannah works with children rather than being built for them. There are trolley tours, the free river ferry, the forts, ghost walks for older children and the birthplace of the Girl Scouts' founder. There is no big zoo or aquarium, though, and long hot walks soon tire young legs.

Savannah's historic district is flat and compact, so you walk from square to square between your hotel, dinner and the sights, and a free shuttle and the river ferry cover the rest. You only need a car for Bonaventure, Wormsloe or Tybee.

Boca Raton is built around the car. Apart from the few walkable blocks around Mizner Park, the beaches, malls and hotels are far apart on wide roads with poor buses, so you will need a hire car or ride-hailing. Its train stations are the one advantage, with direct links to Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

For brand-name shopping, Boca Raton is the stronger of the two. Its enclosed mall is one of the most upscale in Florida, full of department stores and designer labels, and Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place add open-air boutiques under the palms.

Savannah offers a browse rather than a spree: the restored storefronts of Broughton Street, work by art school students and graduates, and antique dealers and bookshops near the squares. It has more personality than Boca's polished malls but nothing on the luxury side.

Neither is cheap, but Savannah is easier on the wallet. Its main pleasures, the squares, Forsyth Park, the riverfront and the cemeteries, cost nothing, and you can see the centre without a car.

Boca Raton is one of the wealthiest towns on the Florida coast. In winter its resorts and restaurants charge accordingly, and a hire car and beach parking come on top. In both cities summer brings much lower room rates, in exchange for heat and storms.

Savannah has the stronger programme, built around the spring Savannah Music Festival, which brings chamber music, jazz and blues to historic theatres and churches. The restored Lucas and Trustees theatres and an autumn jazz festival in Forsyth Park add to it.

Boca Raton's offer is a winter season: concerts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, Broadway-style musicals, recitals at Lynn University's conservatory and a local ballet company. The big touring shows play up the road in West Palm Beach. Outside their peak seasons, both cities have little on.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so rest here comes from calm rather than spa culture. In Boca Raton that means the resort: full spas, pools, yoga studios and a quiet city that goes to bed early.

In Savannah it means the slow pace of the old town, a bench under the oaks or the courtyard of an inn on a southern square, with only a handful of spas. It is most peaceful midweek in spring or autumn, since River Street at weekends and the summer humidity spoil the calm.