Boca Raton or Wilmington?

Boca Raton has the better beaches for most visitors. Its public parks line the barrier island just over the bridges from town, with pale sand, dunes and sea grape instead of high-rises, and Red Reef Park even has a reef you can snorkel from the shore. Above all, the sea is swimmable all year.

Wilmington's three beach towns each have their own character, from polished Wrightsville to the boardwalk at Carolina Beach and quiet Kure Beach. But they lie a drive from the city, parking gets tight on summer weekends, and the swimming season runs only from late May into October.

Neither city is a reason to travel for food, and they are much the same in quality, but the style is different. Boca Raton eats in polished dining rooms around Mizner Park and the plazas: steakhouses, Italian, sushi, stone crab in season and a strong Jewish deli and bagel tradition.

Wilmington is more regional and more relaxed, with local shrimp, flounder and oysters, shrimp and grits, vinegar-sauced whole-hog barbecue and a good craft brewery scene north of downtown. Boca Raton suits a smart dinner out, Wilmington a casual meal with local character.

Wilmington has more to see. Its historic district runs for blocks of antebellum and Victorian houses under live oaks, and house museums like the Bellamy Mansion tell the story of the old port, including its enslaved labour. The Battleship North Carolina across the river adds a Second World War chapter.

Boca Raton is a 1920s resort town, and its interest lies mainly in Addison Mizner's Mediterranean Revival style, the art museum in Mizner Park and the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens just north. It is pleasant for an afternoon, but a culture-led stay soon heads to Palm Beach or Miami.

Wilmington is the livelier of the two after dark. Front Street and the surrounding blocks fill with bars, rooftop terraces and pubs on weekends, helped by the university crowd, and the beach towns add bars in summer, though weeknights out of season are quiet.

Boca Raton's evenings mostly mean dinner and a glass of wine around Mizner Park, and much of the city goes quiet well before midnight. For a later night out, visitors drive to Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, or further to Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

Both landscapes are flat and watery, but Wilmington's is wilder. Masonboro Island can be reached only by boat or kayak, the tidal creeks and salt marsh suit paddling and birdwatching, and Carolina Beach State Park has wild Venus flytraps, which grow nowhere else but this corner of the Carolinas.

Boca Raton's outdoors is more about the sea: snorkelling and diving on the nearshore reef, Gulf Stream fishing charters, mangrove kayaking on the Intracoastal and sea turtle walks at Gumbo Limbo. For alligators and wading birds, the Loxahatchee refuge is about half an hour inland.

Boca Raton has the better spread of outings, sitting midway along the Gold Coast. 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 are an hour away, even by train.

Wilmington's trips are smaller and quieter: Southport and the ferry to car-free Bald Head Island, the Civil War earthworks at Fort Fisher and colonial Brunswick Town. Anything bigger, like New Bern or Beaufort, means about two hours each way.

Both work equally well with children, and both need a car for every outing. Boca Raton has lifeguarded beach parks, a gentle reef for a first snorkel, the sea turtles at Gumbo Limbo and Sugar Sand Park, and it is easiest in winter and spring.

Wilmington is a summer family place, with old-fashioned rides on the Carolina Beach boardwalk, the aquarium at Fort Fisher, the decks of the battleship and plenty of beach rental houses that suit a family stay.

Both cities assume you have a car, but Wilmington is a little easier without one. Its historic district and riverwalk form a compact, flat centre that is pleasant to explore on foot, even if the beaches are 15km or more away.

Boca Raton spreads along wide multi-lane roads, and only the blocks around Mizner Park are really walkable. What it does have is Tri-Rail and Brightline trains, which make car-free trips to Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach realistic.

Boca Raton is the clear choice for shopping. Its large enclosed mall is among Florida's most upscale, full of department stores and designer labels, and Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place add open-air boutique streets, with Worth Avenue close by. It is polished and suburban, with little that is independent.

Wilmington is the opposite: a modest scene of independent boutiques, bookshops and antique dealers on Front Street and in the Cotton Exchange, with surf wear at the beaches and no luxury shopping to speak of.

Wilmington costs a good deal less. Off-season rooms are reasonable, casual seafood and barbecue are fair value, and only summer pushes up beachfront prices.

Boca Raton is expensive, especially from December to April, when hotels and restaurants are priced for a wealthy crowd and even beach parking costs visitors. Summer rates drop sharply, but you pay for that with heat and storms.

In Boca Raton the stage season follows the part-time residents. Concerts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, Lynn University's conservatory recitals and the local ballet are concentrated in winter, which does at least match the best beach weather. For the big nights, such as opera or a major orchestra, the city relies on concert halls in West Palm Beach and Miami, so a serious evening out means a drive.

Wilmington comes out slightly ahead because more of its arts life is its own and it carries on through the warm months, when a beach trip here happens anyway. A play or concert in Thalian Hall, the restored 19th-century opera house downtown, makes a good evening in itself, the city has its own symphony, and outdoor stages and long-running jazz and blues festivals keep going all summer. Neither city is worth planning a trip around for a performance, but in Wilmington you are more likely to come across one while you're there.

Neither city has thermal baths or a bathing tradition, but Boca Raton is the better place for a pampered rest. Its large resort hotels have full spas and pools, and day spas and yoga studios cater to a wealthy, health-conscious town.

Wilmington offers less in the way of treatments, with a few day spas and resort spas near the beaches. Its calm comes more from the slow pace and quiet waterfront evenings outside summer weekends.