Charleston or Sarasota?

Both cities give you real beach days, but Sarasota's are better. Siesta Key's quartz sand is fine, white and cool underfoot, and it slopes gently into calm Gulf water that is warmer in summer than the Atlantic off Charleston. Lido Key is just across the causeway from downtown.

Charleston's three barrier islands each have their own character, from surfy Folly Beach to quiet Sullivan's Island with its old forts. The water there is greenish and tidal, rip currents turn up some days, and the islands are about half an hour from the old town. Sarasota's drawback is the occasional red tide.

Charleston is clearly the food city of the two. Lowcountry cooking, shaped by Gullah Geechee and West African traditions, gives it dishes you won't find elsewhere, from she-crab soup to Carolina Gold rice. Its chefs work everywhere from townhouse dining rooms to whole-hog barbecue pits.

Sarasota eats well enough on Gulf seafood, especially grouper sandwiches and stone crab claws, but it has no cuisine of its own. The Amish and Mennonite family kitchens of Pinecraft are its one real surprise. Neither city has much street food.

In Charleston the whole historic peninsula is the sight. South of Broad Street you walk past single houses and walled gardens, and the house museums show the enslaved people's quarters as well as the grand rooms. Fort Sumter sits out in the harbour, and the museums on the slave trade give a visit real weight.

Sarasota has no old quarter, and its culture rests largely on the Ringling: a full day of Baroque paintings, Rubens canvases and a Venetian Gothic mansion on the bay. The mid-century modernist buildings of the Sarasota School add interest for architecture fans.

Neither is a clubbing city, but Charleston gives you more of a night out. At weekends upper King Street fills its rooftop bars, cocktail rooms and oyster bars with students and groups, and the French Quarter has quieter old taverns. Sarasota's evenings are gentler and the crowd is older: wine bars on Main Street and sunset drinks in Siesta Key Village, with most places quiet early.

Both sit on flat, low coast, where the outdoors means water and wildlife rather than hills. Charleston's landscape is salt marsh, tidal creeks and live oaks hung with Spanish moss. You explore it by kayak among dolphins, and there are alligators in the ACE Basin and the Francis Marion National Forest.

Sarasota has mangrove tunnels off Lido Key instead of marsh, and manatees in the bay. Myakka River State Park adds open prairie and a canopy walk through the treetops. Its outdoor season runs through winter, while Charleston's is spring and autumn.

Charleston has the stronger day trips, most of them built around history. The Ashley River plantations, from Middleton Place to McLeod, are half an hour away. Further out, Savannah's squares and Beaufort's Gullah sea islands each make a full day.

Sarasota's best outing is St Petersburg and its Dalí Museum, with Tampa's Ybor City and the Greek sponge-diving town of Tarpon Springs beyond. In both cities you need a car for nearly all of these.

Sarasota is the easier family vacation, mainly because of the water. The calm, shallow Gulf off Siesta and Lido Keys is ideal for small children, and Mote Marine Laboratory's aquarium and the circus museum fill the other days. Rentals with pools are easy to find.

Charleston works well for school-age children, who can climb through an aircraft carrier at Patriots Point and take the boat to Fort Sumter. But the house tours bore little ones, and the beaches mean a drive. Neither city has a theme park close by.

Charleston is easier without a car, at least in the old town. The peninsula is flat and compact, and a free shuttle and pedicabs fill the gaps. The beaches and plantations still need a car or ride-hailing.

Sarasota needs a car almost from the start. Downtown, St Armands Circle and Siesta Key Village are each easy to walk, but the buses are slow and traffic on the bridges to the keys backs up in winter.

Charleston has a proper shopping street in King Street, which runs from antiques dealers and galleries at the lower end, through the national brands in the middle, to independent boutiques and design shops at the top. At the City Market, Gullah artisans weave and sell sweetgrass baskets, a craft with deep local roots.

Sarasota's shopping is resort browsing, mostly resort wear, jewellery and galleries around St Armands Circle, with a regional mall for the chains. Neither city has a luxury tier.

Both are expensive, and the main difference is when. Charleston's peninsula hotels cost big-city money, especially on spring and autumn weekends, though walking the old streets and the Battery costs nothing.

Sarasota is at its dearest from January to April on the keys and gets cheaper in summer. Staying inland or on the mainland lowers the bill further. In either city, getting around by car or taxi adds up.

Sarasota has the fuller arts season. It has its own opera company, a ballet known for Frederick Ashton's work, a full orchestra programme and the Asolo Rep on the Ringling grounds, mostly from autumn to spring.

Charleston's high point is Spoleto Festival USA, which fills the city with opera, dance and jazz for over two weeks in late spring. For the rest of the year the Dock Street Theatre and the symphony carry a smaller programme, with Gullah storytelling and song as a local strand.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and in both the slow pace does most of the work. In Charleston you unwind in shaded gardens, church courtyards and evenings at White Point Garden, with spas mainly in hotels and out on Kiawah. Sarasota adds sunrise yoga on the sand and Warm Mineral Springs, a warm spring-fed pool forty minutes south, though winter traffic on the keys can take away some of the calm.