British Virgin Islands or St Croix?

The British Virgin Islands have the larger and more varied beach map. You get the granite boulders and grottoes of The Baths on Virgin Gorda, the classic bay at Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, White Bay on Jost Van Dyke where people wade ashore from their boats, and the empty reef-fringed sands of Anegada. Many of the best are reached by water.

St Croix has fewer beaches, but most can be reached by car. Sandy Point and Rainbow Beach on the west end face the sunset, and at Cane Bay you can snorkel straight from the sand. The exception is Buck Island's white beach, which is a short boat trip away.

St Croix gives you more to eat that is local. Crucian cooking means johnny cakes, saltfish and pates from roadside stands, kallaloo and roti from the island's Indo-Caribbean kitchens, and Christiansted has a proper cluster of restaurants in its old streets. The rum distilleries near Frederiksted add a visit of their own.

In the British islands, meals are mostly beach grills and resort dining rooms. The highlights are Anegada's spiny lobster cooked over oil drums and a painkiller cocktail on Jost Van Dyke, but outside Road Town the choice soon narrows.

This is where the two differ most. Christiansted's arcaded ochre waterfront, the Steeple Building and Fort Christiansvaern form a national historic site. Frederiksted's red-walled fort, the sugar mills on the hills, the Whim estate and the Columbus landing site at Salt River give St Croix a compact but meaningful story of Danish rule, slavery and sugar.

The British Virgin Islands have the Old Government House Museum in Road Town, the working rum distillery at Cane Garden Bay and the Cornish engine house of the Copper Mine on Virgin Gorda. That is a pleasant afternoon, not a reason to choose them.

Neither island has clubs, but the British Virgin Islands have more going on after dark. The sailing crowd moves by dinghy between bars at Great Harbour, White Bay and the Bight at Norman Island. Trellis Bay holds full-moon parties with fire sculptures, and New Year's Eve on Jost Van Dyke draws boats from across the region.

St Croix is quieter. Evenings centre on the open-air bars along Christiansted's boardwalk and in its old courtyards, and most places close early, except in the Crucian Christmas Festival season.

Both are at their best underwater, but they reward different trips. The British islands are made for sailing among small islands, diving the wreck of the RMS Rhone and snorkelling the Caves at Norman Island. On land you can walk Sage Mountain or scramble through The Baths, or see flamingos on Anegada.

St Croix gives you Buck Island's marked underwater trail through elkhorn coral and a reef wall at Cane Bay close enough to dive from the beach. It also has night kayaking through bioluminescent water at Salt River and leatherback turtles nesting at Sandy Point.

Neither offers much here, but from Tortola outings are easier. Ferries run to Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke, Anegada is a short flight away, and Charlotte Amalie and Cruz Bay in the US Virgin Islands are close by if you carry a passport.

St Croix lies about 60km south of the rest of the chain. Apart from moving between Christiansted and Frederiksted, the only real outing is a seaplane or a long boat crossing to St Thomas or St John, which takes a full day.

The two are much alike for families. Both have calm, warm water, easy snorkelling and nothing built for children, so no zoos or aquariums. In the British islands, the easiest bases are Cane Garden Bay or a Virgin Gorda resort, and a charter yacht can be a real adventure for older children, though boat transfers need managing with toddlers.

St Croix keeps everything on one island. Turtles, tide pools and a fort to explore add some variety, and American families need no passport. Every outing does mean a drive, though.

In the British Virgin Islands you get around by ferry, and on St Croix by hire car, and that shapes each trip more than anything else. In the British islands you plan around sailings, with fewer boats out to Anegada, and drive on the left on Tortola's steep, narrow roads. Many visitors avoid the logistics entirely by chartering a yacht or by staying at one resort.

St Croix is a single island with one road network. Christiansted to Frederiksted is about forty minutes' drive, usually in a left-hand-drive American car kept to the left. Christiansted is pleasant to walk around, but buses are sparse, so reaching beaches and sights spread across the island means driving.

St Croix has a little more to buy. Christiansted's arcaded streets have jewellers making the Crucian hook bracelet, galleries of Caribbean art and shops selling local rum and hot sauce.

In the British islands, shopping is limited to a few shops on Road Town's Main Street and the marina stores selling sailing gear and swimwear. Shoppers on both islands end up taking the boat to the duty-free streets of St Thomas.

St Croix is the cheaper of the two, though only by comparison. In the British Virgin Islands, resorts and villas are priced for a wealthy market, taxis are expensive, and even a shared yacht charter is a big outlay, especially in the winter peak.

St Croix is still costly, because almost everything is shipped in and a hire car adds to every day. Even so, small guesthouses in Christiansted, local food stands and free beaches make a stay there easier to manage.

Both islands have their own scratch-band music, fungi in the British islands and quelbe on St Croix, and neither has a concert or theatre season. St Croix has slightly more to offer: the stilt-walking mocko jumbies, the Crucian Christmas Festival, a small performing arts centre and open-air jazz on the Frederiksted waterfront.

In the British Virgin Islands, the main occasions are the Emancipation Festival in Road Town in late summer and the beach music festival at Cane Garden Bay.

For a proper rest with some pampering, the British Virgin Islands give more. Neither island has thermal baths or a spa tradition of its own. In the British islands, though, the resorts on Virgin Gorda's North Sound and on the private islands have open-air treatment rooms and yoga on decks above the water. Avoid Tortola around Road Town if you want quiet.

St Croix relies mostly on its slow pace. It has a handful of resort spas and massage studios and the odd yoga class. The real draw is a villa on the east end hills or a stay on the quiet West End, where the evenings end early.