Clearwater or Miami Beach?

These are two of Florida's great beaches, and the difference between them is in the water and the mood. Clearwater has powder-white sand and clear, shallow Gulf water you can wade far out into, sunsets over the sea, and wild stretches on Caladesi and Honeymoon Islands for anyone who wants empty sand.

Miami Beach gives you a single 11km strip of Atlantic sand with a paved beachwalk behind it. The sea is warmer through the winter but green-blue rather than clear. The tone changes from the crowds, music and vendors of South Beach to the calmer parks of North Beach.

Miami Beach eats much better, mainly thanks to its Latin American kitchens: croquetas and cafecito from takeaway windows, ceviche and arepas in North Beach's cafés, and stone crab in winter, with Little Havana just across the causeway. Avoid Ocean Drive, where the menus are aimed at passing tourists.

Clearwater's best meal is a fried or blackened grouper sandwich at a dockside fish shack. Beyond that the beachfront is mostly chain restaurants, and the most rewarding food outing is to the Greek tavernas of Tarpon Springs.

Miami Beach has something real to look at: the Art Deco Historic District, hundreds of pastel 1930s hotels with neon and porthole windows that you can walk along Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue. Add the Wolfsonian's design collection, the Bass and the Holocaust Memorial, and that is a full day or two.

Clearwater has a few early twentieth-century buildings on the downtown bluff and a restored 1920s theatre, and not much more. Visitors who want art go to the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg instead.

This is where the two differ most. South Beach is a world-famous place to go out, with guest DJs, pool parties, dress codes and table service, and clubs that fill after midnight and stay open until dawn. For something quieter, Sunset Harbour and Mid-Beach have cocktail and wine bars.

In Clearwater the evening peaks at sunset by Pier 60, then moves on to tiki decks and cover bands and ends fairly early. Spring brings a louder, younger crowd, but for a real night out people drive to Ybor City in Tampa.

Both are flat, watery places where most of the outdoors means getting on the water, but the settings differ. Clearwater has wild nature right on its doorstep: state parks on undeveloped barrier islands, mangrove channels to kayak, dolphins in the harbour, manatees in winter and the long Pinellas Trail for easy cycling.

Miami Beach itself is almost all city. What it has instead is offshore reefs and wrecks for snorkelling and diving, Biscayne National Park, and the Everglades, with alligators and airboats, about an hour's drive away.

There is plenty to do within a drive of both, and in both cases a car makes it work. From Clearwater the trips go to several separate towns: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, Ybor City's cigar factories in Tampa, the Greek sponge docks at Tarpon Springs, the Ringling in Sarasota, and Orlando's theme parks if you are willing to drive.

From Miami Beach most outings cross the bay to one big city, for Vizcaya, Coral Gables, Wynwood and Little Havana. Further afield, the choices are the mansions of Palm Beach to the north or Key Largo to the south.

Clearwater is the better place for children. Its shallow, surf-free water suits the very young, the marine aquarium and pirate boat trips are within reach of the beach, and Busch Gardens and Adventure Island are under an hour away. Hotels and condos are set up for families.

Miami Beach's warm, lifeguarded sea is just as good for a swim. Away from the sand, though, the zoo, the science museum and the animal parks are all on the mainland, and South Beach's party weekends make Mid-Beach or Surfside the better base.

Miami Beach is easier without a car. South Beach is compact enough to walk, free trolleys run up Collins Avenue, and bike share and the beachwalk make cycling simple. Leaving the island is another matter, as the causeways clog and there is no rail.

In Clearwater the beach strip is walkable and has a trolley down to Sand Key and a ferry to downtown. Beyond that it is low-rise sprawl with slow buses, so a hire car is close to essential.

Miami Beach is clearly the better place to shop. Clearwater has nothing to plan a day around: the beach strip sells what the stay itself needs, and anyone after designer labels faces a drive across the bay to Tampa. Its one advantage is a local souvenir, a natural sponge from the Greek docks at Tarpon Springs.

Miami Beach can fill a shopping day without leaving the island. Bal Harbour, at the northern tip, has the big European fashion and jewellery houses in one open-air mall, and Lincoln Road gives South Beach a palm-shaded pedestrian street for an evening's browsing, even if most of its chains are ones you already know. What it lacks is anything handmade or local, and for design boutiques you cross to the mainland.

Neither is cheap, but Clearwater costs less. Rooms on the mainland or further down the coast cost noticeably less than beachfront ones, and condos with kitchens keep a family's food bills under control.

Miami Beach adds resort fees, parking charges and service charges on top of its winter room rates, and a night out in South Beach costs more than in most big cities. In both places summer is cheaper, and you pay for it with heat and storms.

Miami Beach has the stronger arts life on the island itself. The New World Symphony plays in Frank Gehry's hall, with some concerts projected onto the outside wall for audiences on the lawn, and Miami City Ballet is based here, mostly performing from autumn to spring.

Clearwater depends on touring acts: rock, comedy and Broadway shows at Ruth Eckerd Hall, and smaller concerts at the Capitol Theatre. For opera, both send you across the bay to a larger arts centre on the mainland.

Clearwater offers rest through its pace, not its spas. It is a low-rise resort and retirement town with no sights that need an early start, so the days settle into pool time, long lunches and quiet evenings by the marina. Its spas are hotel treatment rooms and suburban day spas, and nobody travels for them.

Miami Beach is the place for proper pampering. Its large resort spas have hydrotherapy circuits with saunas, steam rooms and plunge pools, and mornings start with yoga on the sand. South Beach is loud and runs late, though, so for a restful week stay in Mid-Beach or further north towards Surfside.