British Virgin Islands or St John?

Both have warm, clear, sheltered water and excellent sand, so the difference is in how you reach it. In the British Virgin Islands the beaches are spread across several islands: Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, the granite pools of The Baths on Virgin Gorda, White Bay on Jost Van Dyke and the empty, reef-fringed shores of Anegada. Many are best reached by boat.

St John lines its bays up along one north shore road, most of them inside the national park and undeveloped, from Trunk Bay's snorkel trail to the turtle grass at Maho. You can see several in a day by jeep or safari taxi, but the best-known bays fill by late morning in winter and have few facilities.

Neither is a place to travel for food, and the routine is much the same on both: grilled fish, johnnycakes, rum and the painkiller. In the British Virgin Islands the memorable meals belong to the places you sail to, such as lobster grilled on the beach at Anegada and drinks at the bars of Jost Van Dyke. Virgin Gorda's resorts add more polished dining.

On St John almost everything is in Cruz Bay, which has a decent range for an island this size, from open-air restaurants to food trucks and West Indian kitchens. Many villa guests stock up and cook for themselves.

St John has the clearer story to show, though neither is a sightseeing trip. Its Danish plantation past survives in the forest: the windmill and boiling house at Annaberg, the Taíno petroglyphs at the end of the Reef Bay Trail, and the fort above Coral Bay where the 1733 slave revolt began. That is a morning or two of sights worth walking to.

The British Virgin Islands offer less. There is the Old Government House Museum and a few wooden buildings in Road Town, the working rum distillery at Cane Garden Bay and the Copper Mine's engine house on Virgin Gorda, which together fill an afternoon at most.

The British Virgin Islands have the better evenings because the night moves with the boats. Yachts anchor off Jost Van Dyke and Norman Island, and going out means taking the dinghy from one beach bar to the next. Each bay has a different crowd, so a week of sailing gives you a string of different nights. A few big occasions on Tortola and Jost Van Dyke are worth planning a trip around. Otherwise sailors go to bed early, and there are no clubs.

St John has one small waterfront rather than a chain of anchorages. Visitors, boat crews and residents mix at the few open-air bars in Cruz Bay and a couple in Coral Bay. That makes for an easy evening but not much variety, and most nights end soon after dinner. To stay out later, you have to take the ferry to St Thomas.

St John packs more into a small space, on land and at sea. Most of the island is national park, with trails down the Reef Bay valley, out to the cliffs of Ram Head and around Lameshur. At Waterlemon Cay and Maho you can swim out from the beach and find turtles and rays.

The British Virgin Islands are about the water on a wider scale. You can sail the Sir Francis Drake Channel, dive the wreck of the RMS Rhone, snorkel the Caves at Norman Island and kitesurf at Trellis Bay. On land, Sage Mountain and Gorda Peak have short trails, and walkers will run out of routes sooner than on St John.

St John is better placed for days out, mainly because St Thomas is a short ferry ride away, with the Danish streets, fort and harbour of Charlotte Amalie. Day charter boats also cross to Jost Van Dyke and The Baths on Virgin Gorda, stopping at empty cays to snorkel, though that means passports and customs.

Within the British Virgin Islands, the places to visit are small: Spanish Town, Great Harbour and Anegada's Settlement. The best day out means crossing the border to Charlotte Amalie, or to Cruz Bay and the Annaberg ruins on St John itself.

Both suit families whose children love the water, with calm, shallow bays and reefs close to shore, and neither has a zoo, aquarium or anything else built for children. The British Virgin Islands have a slight edge. The resort beaches of Virgin Gorda and Cane Garden Bay are easy bases, and a charter yacht is a real adventure for older children.

On St John, the turtles at Maho Bay, in water where a child can stand, and Trunk Bay's marked snorkel trail make good first tries. But the journey in by plane, taxi and ferry, villas at the top of steep hills and few lifeguards are harder going for parents of small children.

Both take some planning, with steep, winding roads and driving on the left, but the work is of a different kind. In the British Virgin Islands the task is getting between islands: ferries to Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke, and fewer sailings or a short flight to Anegada. Many visitors avoid this by taking a charter yacht or staying at one resort.

St John is one small island once you are there, but getting there means flying into St Thomas, taking a taxi to Red Hook and then a ferry. After that, a hired jeep reaches the trails and the south shore, safari taxis run to the north shore beaches, and you can walk around Cruz Bay.

Neither is a shopping destination, and both send keen shoppers to the duty-free streets of Charlotte Amalie, a short ferry ride from St John but a border crossing from the British Virgin Islands. Road Town's Main Street and the marinas sell rum, spices, sailing gear and woven baskets. St John's courtyards by the Cruz Bay ferry dock lean more towards galleries, jewellers and hand-painted pottery.

Both are expensive because nearly everything is shipped in, but the ways to save differ. In the British Virgin Islands the main one is sharing a charter boat among a group, which spreads the cost of beds and transport. Small guesthouses on Tortola and food stands in Road Town are the cheaper fallback.

On St John the national park beaches and trails are mostly free, and the Cinnamon Bay campground is a simpler way to stay. Rates also drop in summer and autumn, the hurricane months.

Neither has a theatre or concert scene, so music comes from bars and festivals, and their festivals fall at different times of year. The British Virgin Islands have fungi, played by scratch bands on washboards and gourds, as well as the Emancipation Festival in late summer and a beach music festival at Cane Garden Bay. St John's big occasion is its carnival in early summer, with calypso and quelbe. The rest of the year brings singer-guitarists and steel pan to the bars of Cruz Bay.

For a restful stay the British Virgin Islands offer more, mainly through the secluded resorts on Virgin Gorda's North Sound and the private islands, with open-air treatment rooms and yoga decks above the sea. Neither has a bathing tradition or thermal springs.

St John's calm comes from the national park: little traffic, no high-rise building and quiet nights in a hillside villa. Massage therapists who visit villas and a few small yoga studios make up the rest. That suits switching off rather than a spa programme.