Clearwater or Savannah?

Clearwater's beach is the whole reason to go. Fine white sand on a barrier island slopes into clear, shallow Gulf water, and when Pier 60 gets crowded there is wilder sand on Caladesi and Honeymoon Island.

Savannah has no beach of its own. Tybee Island, about half an hour's drive away, has wide, flat sand and a warm summer sea, but the water is a greenish-brown from the marshes and the beach town is modest. It makes a pleasant day out rather than a base.

Savannah eats better and has a cuisine of its own: shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Lowcountry boil and oyster roasts in the cooler months. On top of that comes a small group of chef-led restaurants in restored townhouses south of Forsyth Park.

Clearwater's strengths are narrower. A blackened grouper sandwich at a dockside shack, stone crab in season and a drink on a beach deck at sunset are the high points. Beyond that the beachfront is mostly chain restaurants, and the most rewarding meal may be a Greek one up the coast in Tarpon Springs.

This is where the two differ most. Savannah's 1733 grid of garden squares, lined with Federal and Greek Revival houses, is a sight in itself. The Telfair Museums, the Owens-Thomas House and Bonaventure Cemetery fill a couple of days on foot.

Clearwater has a downtown with a few early twentieth-century buildings and some small local history collections, and little more. Anyone interested in art or architecture ends up driving to St Petersburg or Tampa.

Savannah gives the better evening out. You can carry drinks in to-go cups through the historic district, so a night can wander from River Street's cobbled bars to the taverns at City Market and quiet townhouse cocktail rooms. On St Patrick's Day the city becomes one of the South's biggest street parties.

Clearwater's evening centres on watching the sunset at Pier 60, followed by tiki decks and cover bands by the water. Apart from the louder spring weeks it means a few drinks and an early night, and the nearest proper night out is in Ybor City in Tampa.

Both sit in flat, watery coastal country, and in both the best way to see it is from a kayak. Clearwater has a slight edge. It has wild state parks on Caladesi and Honeymoon Island, dolphins in the harbour, manatees in winter, and fishing, sailing and paddleboarding straight from the marina. The long Pinellas Trail adds easy cycling.

Savannah's version is salt marsh and tidal creeks, best explored at high tide, with wood storks and egrets, the oak avenue at Wormsloe and the trails on Skidaway Island. Heat and biting insects make its summers harder going.

Both make good bases for driving out, but to different kinds of places. From Clearwater the trips lead to bigger cities and big attractions: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, Ybor City in Tampa, the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, and Orlando's theme parks about two hours away.

Savannah's outings lead to historic towns and islands. Charleston is two hours north, Beaufort lies among the Sea Islands, Fort Pulaski is on the road to Tybee, and Jekyll and St Simons are down the Georgia coast. From either city you will need a car.

Clearwater is the easier place with children. Calm, shallow water with lifeguards at Pier 60, the dolphin and sea turtle rescue centre at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and pirate boat trips fill the days. Busch Gardens and Adventure Island are about forty minutes away, and condos with pools and kitchens make the stay simpler.

Savannah can work too. It has Forsyth Park to run around in, trolley tours, ghost walks for older children and the birthplace of the Girl Scouts' founder. But it has no aquarium or theme park, and long walks in the heat tire small children quickly.

Savannah's historic district is flat, compact and made for walking, with a free shuttle and a river ferry to fill the gaps. You can do without a car until the day you go to Tybee or Wormsloe.

In Clearwater only the beach island is walkable, with a trolley down to Sand Key and a water taxi to downtown. Everything else is sprawl built for driving, with slow buses and queues on the causeway on busy weekends.

Neither city is worth visiting for the shopping, but Savannah makes for a better browse. It has the restored storefronts of Broughton Street, shops selling work by art school students and graduates, and antique dealers and bookshops around the southern squares. Clearwater has souvenir shops on the beach strip and malls on the mainland, and natural sponges from Tarpon Springs are the most local thing to bring home.

Neither is cheap, and both are expensive in similar ways: room prices climb in spring, and eating out comes with American tax and tip on top.

Where you can save differs. In Clearwater the beach is free apart from parking, a condo kitchen cuts meal costs, and summer brings lower room prices at the cost of heat and storms. In Savannah the squares, the park and the cemeteries cost nothing, and staying in a motel by the highway or visiting midweek in summer lowers the bill.

There is little between them, but the pattern differs. Clearwater has steady programming all year at Ruth Eckerd Hall, with touring rock acts, comedy and Broadway shows, and smaller concerts at the Capitol Theatre.

Savannah's offer is more seasonal. Its spring music festival fills historic theatres and churches with chamber music, jazz and blues, and an autumn jazz festival takes over Forsyth Park. Outside those weeks there may be little to see.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and in both a spa mostly means a hotel treatment room. The rest comes from the slow pace, though it feels different in each. In Clearwater it is a routine of pool, balcony and early nights in a low-rise resort town. In Savannah it is a bench under the oaks or the courtyard of an old inn on a quiet southern square.

Both lose their calm in spring, to spring break on Clearwater's beach and to the big festivities on Savannah's River Street, and both are tiring in the heat of high summer.