Charleston or St. Petersburg, Florida?

St. Petersburg has the better beaches. Its Gulf islands have wide, fine white sand and shallow, calm water at St. Pete Beach and Pass-a-Grille, wilder stretches at Fort De Soto, and the sea is a couple of degrees warmer through the summer. Red tide and summer storms are the occasional drawbacks.

Charleston's Atlantic beaches are good but a different kind of beach: the water is greenish and moved by the tides, and some days bring rip currents. Folly Beach has a surf-town feel and Sullivan's Island has old forts behind the dunes, so the islands have more character, if not better swimming.

Charleston is far the better city to eat in. Lowcountry cooking, shaped by Gullah Geechee and West African traditions, gives it dishes found almost nowhere else, from Frogmore stew to Carolina Gold rice and winter oyster roasts, and its chefs treat that heritage seriously. The catch is that the best tables need booking well ahead.

St. Petersburg eats well but more simply: grouper sandwiches and smoked fish spread at waterfront shacks, solid modern kitchens along Central Avenue, and excellent craft breweries. It makes for good, easy meals but rarely a memorable one.

Charleston has more to see, because the city itself is the main sight. Walking south of Broad Street among the single houses, steeples and walled gardens is the point of a visit, and the Aiken-Rhett house, Fort Sumter and the International African American Museum give that beauty its uncomfortable history.

St. Petersburg's culture is mostly indoors and mostly art. The Dalí Museum is a real draw, backed by the Museum of Fine Arts and the Chihuly glass, but the streets themselves are 1920s boom-era buildings and murals rather than centuries of history.

The two cities offer much the same kind of night out: bars, not clubs, and an evening rather than an all-nighter. Charleston's upper King Street gets loud with students and weekend groups, while the French Quarter's wine bars and old taverns are quieter.

St. Petersburg is more laid-back, with Central Avenue taprooms and rooftop bars and beach tiki bars where the evening starts at sunset. For a bigger night, people go across the bay to Ybor City.

Both cities sit on flat coast best explored by kayak, but the landscapes differ. Charleston's is spartina marsh, tidal creeks and live oaks hung with Spanish moss, with alligators in the ACE Basin and the Francis Marion forest. St. Petersburg's is subtropical mangrove, where winter paddles at Weedon Island and Shell Key can turn up manatees and rays.

The seasons matter too. Charleston is best outdoors in spring and autumn, while St. Petersburg is at its best in winter, when the paved Pinellas Trail is also pleasant for long rides.

Charleston has the stronger day trips. Middleton Place, Drayton Hall and McLeod Plantation are about half an hour away, Savannah's squares make a full day, and Beaufort leads into Gullah sea-island country, so a week can be filled with outings that each have a different focus.

From St. Petersburg the best outings are Ybor City in Tampa, the Ringling in Sarasota and the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs, with Orlando at the edge of a day. Beyond those, the beach towns start to look much alike.

St. Petersburg is the easier family base. Shallow Gulf water suits small children, beach condos are set up for families, and Busch Gardens, ZooTampa and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium are all within driving distance, with Orlando's parks as a bigger day out.

Charleston works best for school-age children who will enjoy climbing through the carrier at Patriots Point and taking the boat to Fort Sumter. With no theme park or big zoo and a lot of house tours, it holds younger children's interest for less time.

Neither city works well without a car once you leave the centre, but Charleston is the easier one to stay in without a car. Its peninsula is flat and walkable end to end, with a free shuttle and pedicabs, so a visitor based in the old town can spend days on foot and drive only to the beaches or plantations.

St. Petersburg's compact downtown and the rapid bus to St. Pete Beach cover two bases, but everything else, from Fort De Soto to Tampa, means driving, and many beach-based visitors never leave the car.

Charleston is the better place to shop. King Street changes as you walk it, from antiques dealers on lower King to brand stores in the middle and independent design shops further up, and the City Market's sweetgrass baskets are a craft with real roots.

St. Petersburg has charming small shops, including vintage and record shops in the Grand Central District and local glass, but nothing in the way of brand names. Anyone after brand-name or designer shopping drives to the Tampa malls.

Neither is cheap, but St. Petersburg costs less. Its summer and early autumn bring lower hotel rates, and staying a little inland helps further, although a hire car and beach parking add to the bill.

Charleston's historic inns charge rates comparable to much bigger American cities, and paid house and plantation tours mount up. The best saving there is to stay in Mount Pleasant and drive in each day.

The two are evenly matched and both modest, but Charleston has one moment worth timing a trip around. For just over two weeks in late spring, Spoleto Festival USA and its fringe companion, Piccolo Spoleto, turn the peninsula's theatres and halls into one long programme, and the city feels given over to it. Outside that window it is a small city's offer, built around the Dock Street Theatre and the Gaillard Center, with Gullah song and storytelling as the strand you will not find elsewhere.

St. Petersburg has no peak of that kind, just a steadier and smaller year. The Mahaffey Theater on the waterfront is home to the orchestra and touring productions, and smaller venues and bars provide the bands, so there is usually something to fill an evening. For the larger productions, people treat Tampa across the bay as part of the same scene.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so relaxing comes down to resort spas and the slow pace. In Charleston that means shaded gardens, church courtyards and evenings at White Point Garden, best in spring and autumn.

St. Petersburg's equivalent is the nightly sunset on the Gulf and the sleepy streets of Pass-a-Grille, and its gentlest season is the dry, mild winter.