Boca Raton or West Palm Beach?

Both towns have soft pale sand and the same warm Atlantic, so the difference is in character. Boca Raton's shore is a short run of beach parks with dunes and low buildings behind them. Spanish River Park has picnic shade among the sea grape, and South Beach Park sits close to downtown. The mood is quiet, mostly families, swimmers and early walkers, and for a busier beach you drive to Delray.

West Palm Beach has more kinds of beach to choose from. Midtown Beach and Phipps Ocean Park are on Palm Beach, Singer Island and Juno are broad and quiet, and the public beach at Lake Worth is the lively one. Peanut Island, a short boat ride across the inlet, adds sheltered lagoon water that ocean beaches can't offer.

West Palm Beach eats somewhat better. Clematis Street and the waterfront terraces cover the polished side. Northwood and Dixie Highway are more local, and Cuban, Haitian and Caribbean bakeries and lunch counters away from the centre add variety you won't find in Boca. In winter there is also a Saturday green market by the water.

Boca Raton's dining is mostly in Mizner Park, Royal Palm Place and the shopping plazas, and much of it is chains or upscale formula. Its real local strength is delis and bagel bakeries, thanks to its large Jewish community.

Here West Palm Beach is well ahead. The Norton Museum of Art alone outweighs anything in Boca Raton. Across the lagoon, the Flagler Museum tells the story of the railway that built this coast, and Palm Beach's villas and Worth Avenue's courtyards fill an afternoon of looking at buildings.

Boca Raton's appeal is Addison Mizner's 1920s Mediterranean Revival town, seen in the Old Town Hall and the pink-towered hotel, plus a respectable art museum in Mizner Park. The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, just north, is its best visit. After that, sightseeing means driving to Palm Beach or Miami.

Neither city has a deep night scene, but West Palm Beach has a going-out street of its own. Clematis Street and Rosemary Square have rooftop terraces, sports bars and a couple of dance spots that fill at weekends.

Boca Raton's evenings are wine bars and cocktail lounges around Mizner Park, plus a few student bars near the university, and most of the town is quiet before midnight. For a later night, people drive fifteen minutes to Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach.

West Palm Beach offers more outdoors. The shallow shore dive under the Blue Heron Bridge, with seahorses and octopus, is famous nationally, and Gulf Stream drift dives are a short boat ride out. The flat Lake Trail suits cycling. Grassy Waters Preserve, the turtle beaches of Juno and the river paddling in Jonathan Dickinson State Park are all within reach.

Boca Raton's outdoors is smaller in scale but easy to reach. You can kayak the mangroves on the Intracoastal or walk the boardwalks at Gumbo Limbo, which runs night walks in the turtle nesting season. The Loxahatchee refuge's alligators are about half an hour inland.

Both towns sit on the same strip of coast, but Boca Raton's place in the middle gives it a small edge. Delray Beach is next door, Fort Lauderdale's canals and Las Olas Boulevard are half an hour south, and Palm Beach's Flagler Museum and Worth Avenue are about forty minutes north. Miami is about an hour away by car or train, and Art Deco South Beach, Little Havana and the Vizcaya estate easily fill a day.

From West Palm Beach the balance tilts north. Jupiter's red lighthouse and riverfront and old-fashioned Stuart are closer, and Palm Beach is just across the lagoon rather than a day out. Fort Lauderdale is further away, but fast trains still get you to Miami in about an hour, and Delray Beach and the Morikami gardens make an easy half-day on the way south.

Both are safe, easy places for children, and in both you need a car and winter is easier than summer. Boca Raton's best family days are low-key: the turtle tanks at Gumbo Limbo, the Children's Science Explorium, Sugar Sand Park's playgrounds, and a first snorkel at Red Reef Park.

West Palm Beach has a little more close by. Lion Country Safari is a short drive rather than an hour away, and the zoo, the science centre and aquarium, and the free Manatee Lagoon centre are all nearby. Peanut Island's calm lagoon is ideal for small swimmers.

West Palm Beach is much easier without a car. Its downtown is compact and flat, a free trolley links the waterfront, Clematis Street and Rosemary Square, and you can cycle to Palm Beach over the bridges.

Boca Raton is built around the car. Only the area around Mizner Park is pleasant on foot, and the beaches, hotels and shops lie along wide multi-lane roads. Both cities share the same rail advantage, with Tri-Rail and Brightline trains to Miami, but in Boca you still need a car or ride-hailing for nearly everything else.

West Palm Beach has Worth Avenue across the lagoon, with luxury houses, jewellers and tiled vias that are pleasant to wander even without buying. It also has consignment shops selling Palm Beach designer cast-offs and the long stretch of dealers on Antique Row. That gives it more character than anything in Boca.

Boca Raton's strength is its big enclosed mall, one of the most upscale in Florida, with the open-air boutiques of Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place alongside. It is polished and suburban, and for Worth Avenue you drive forty minutes north.

Both are expensive, especially from December to April, and both get much cheaper in the hot, stormy summer. In either city a hire car adds to the cost.

The small differences are in what is free. Boca Raton charges visitors to park at its beach parks. West Palm Beach has free beaches, the free trolley and the Lake Trail, though the hotels on Palm Beach itself are among the dearest on the coast.

The Kravis Center gives West Palm Beach a clear lead. It hosts touring Broadway shows, visiting orchestras and the Palm Beach Opera, and Palm Beach Dramaworks stages serious plays on Clematis Street. Boca Raton's residents come here for the big nights.

Boca Raton's own calendar is smaller: open-air concerts and the Festival of the Arts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, Broadway-style musicals at a regional theatre, and recitals from the Lynn University conservatory. In both towns things slow down a lot in summer.

Rest looks much the same in both: resort spas, pools and day spas, and no bathing tradition in either. Boca Raton's calm is suburban and early to bed. West Palm Beach adds Palm Beach's manicured quiet and promenades on both sides of the lagoon for slow morning and evening walks.