British Virgin Islands or St Thomas?

The two are close on beaches, but they work in different ways. In the British Virgin Islands the best sand is spread across the chain: Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, the boulder pools of The Baths on Virgin Gorda, White Bay on Jost Van Dyke where you wade ashore from your boat, and the empty reef-fringed shore of Anegada. Many of these are best reached by boat.

St Thomas keeps its beaches closer to where you sleep. Magens Bay is a long sheltered horseshoe, and at the east end you can walk from your room to Sapphire or Secret Harbour. St John's north shore is twenty minutes away by ferry. The cost is crowds at Magens and Coki Point on cruise days.

Neither is a place to travel for food, and they eat in similar ways. St Thomas has a little more West Indian cooking to look for, with pates, kallaloo and fungi with boiled fish from roadside stands around Charlotte Amalie, and more sit-down restaurants in Frenchtown and Red Hook.

The British Virgin Islands have the more memorable single meal: spiny lobster grilled over oil drums on the beach at Anegada. Away from Road Town, though, the choice soon narrows to resort dining rooms and beach bars.

St Thomas has the stronger history, all of it in Charlotte Amalie. Danish warehouses line alleys down to the harbour, the 99 Steps climb the hill, and there are Fort Christian and the sand-floored synagogue. Together they fill a good half day or a full one.

In the British Virgin Islands, the Old Government House Museum in Road Town, the ruined Cornish engine house at the Copper Mine on Virgin Gorda and scattered plantation ruins add up to an afternoon at most.

Evenings are much the same in scale: rum punch, music and early nights, with no clubs on either. The difference is where you spend them.

In the British Virgin Islands, nights out move from anchorage to anchorage by dinghy, from Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke to the Bight at Norman Island, with full-moon fire sculptures at Trellis Bay. On St Thomas they stay on land, in the open-air bars around the Red Hook ferry dock and a few waterside spots in Frenchtown.

The outdoors is evenly matched, but the two lean in different directions. The British Virgin Islands are the sailing ground itself, with short passages across the Sir Francis Drake Channel, the wreck of the RMS Rhone for divers, the reef around Anegada and the flamingos on its salt ponds.

St Thomas has few trails of its own. Its best land is across the water on St John, where about two thirds of the island is national park, with forest paths down to sugar mill ruins and petroglyphs. Charters and dive boats leave from Red Hook to explore the same channels.

St Thomas has more places within a day's reach. St John and Cruz Bay are a short, frequent ferry ride away, Water Island is a quick hop from the harbour, and St Croix's Danish towns of Christiansted and Frederiksted make a longer day out. The British Virgin Islands are also close, with a passport.

From Tortola the choices are smaller: Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda, Great Harbour on Jost Van Dyke and the quiet Settlement on Anegada. The best town to visit is in fact Charlotte Amalie on St Thomas, across the border.

St Thomas is the easier choice with children. Beyond its calm, shallow bays it has Coral World's undersea observatory and touch pools, and the Skyride to Paradise Point. US currency and familiar brands also make the day-to-day simpler.

The British Virgin Islands offer the same warm, shallow water and snorkelling a few strokes from shore. A charter yacht can be a real adventure for older children, but there are no attractions built for young ones, and boat transfers add to the effort.

Both make getting about hard work, with steep, winding roads, driving on the left and buses of little use. What differs is the way out of it.

In the British Virgin Islands, the answer is a charter yacht, or ferries linking Tortola with Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke, while Anegada needs more planning. On St Thomas you use shared safari taxis or a hire car, and you allow for heavy traffic around Charlotte Amalie on cruise days. The frequent Red Hook ferry makes St John simple.

St Thomas is far ahead here. Main Street and the old stone warehouses of Charlotte Amalie form an old duty-free district for jewellery, watches, perfume and liquor, and Havensight by the cruise dock follows the same pattern. It works best when you know what you want to buy, rather than for browsing boutiques.

The British Virgin Islands offer little more than a few shops on Road Town's Main Street, marina stores selling swimwear and sailing gear, and woven baskets and island paintings.

Neither is cheap, but St Thomas is a little easier on a careful budget. Most beaches are free or cheap to use, lunch counters and roadside stands serve local food, and rum is duty-free. The catch is that safari taxis charge per person.

In the British Virgin Islands, almost everything is imported, the resorts and villas are aimed at a wealthy market, and the classic yacht charter is a large outlay even when shared. Guesthouses on Tortola soften this only slightly.

In the British Virgin Islands, the musical year rests on two events: the Emancipation Festival in Road Town in late summer and a beach festival at Cane Garden Bay. The rest of the time you get fungi scratch bands playing washboards and gourds at the beach bars.

St Thomas gives you a little more to plan around. Its Carnival in spring runs for several weeks, with steel pan, calypso, quelbe and mocko jumbies on stilts. The Reichhold Center's open-air amphitheatre also puts on the occasional concert or dance performance.

The British Virgin Islands are the more restful of the two. The secluded resorts on Virgin Gorda's North Sound and the private islands combine open-air treatment rooms, yoga decks over the water and real quiet.

On St Thomas, wellness means the spas of the larger beach resorts. To get real peace you need to stay on the east end or north shore, away from the harbour and the cruise-day crowds. Neither has a tradition of thermal baths.