Clearwater or Siesta Key?

Both are among the finest beaches on the Gulf, with fine white sand and shallow, calm water warm enough to swim in for much of the year. The difference lies in what surrounds them. Clearwater's main beach around Pier 60 is busy and well served. Wilder sand is a short trip away at Sand Key, Honeymoon Island and undeveloped Caladesi Island.

Siesta Key offers more variety on one island. Siesta Beach's quartz sand stays cool underfoot, Crescent Beach has the rocks at Point of Rocks for snorkelling, and Turtle Beach's darker sand is the place to hunt for shells and fossilised shark teeth.

The menus are much the same on both, with grouper sandwiches, shrimp baskets and stone crab eaten on open-air decks. Clearwater's beachfront leans towards chain restaurants, and its best food outing is the Greek tavernas and bakeries of Tarpon Springs. Siesta Key has a short drive to downtown Sarasota and St Armands Circle, which give it a wider choice for a proper dinner, as well as a Saturday farmers' market.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, but Siesta Key has far more within reach. Clearwater has an old downtown on the bluff and a restored 1920s theatre, and for anything more you drive to St Petersburg or Tampa.

From Siesta Key, Sarasota is only a short drive. The Ringling estate there combines a serious art museum known for its Rubens canvases, the Venetian Gothic Ca' d'Zan mansion and a circus museum. The Selby Botanical Gardens and the town's mid-century modern houses can fill a second day.

Evenings in both begin with the sunset and end early, in open-air bars with cover bands. Clearwater's version spreads around Pier 60 and the tiki decks along the beach, and it is closer to the real nightlife of Ybor City and downtown St Petersburg. On Siesta Key the evening is packed into the few blocks of Siesta Village, and Sarasota's cocktail bars and rooftops are the step up. Both get louder at spring break.

The two coasts are equally flat, with mangroves, barrier islands and dolphins in the bays. Clearwater's strengths are the protected state parks of Caladesi and Honeymoon islands, with their ospreys and pine flatwoods, and the long Pinellas Trail for easy cycling.

Siesta Key has sea turtles nesting on its beaches in summer and kayaking through the mangrove tunnels of Lido Key. Inland, Myakka River State Park has alligators, wading birds and a canopy walkway.

Clearwater sits in the middle of the Tampa Bay area, so most of its days out are city days. St Petersburg's Dalí Museum is about forty minutes away, Ybor City is across the bay in Tampa, and the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs are just up the coast. Even Orlando's theme parks are within a two-hour drive.

From Siesta Key, those cities mean a longer drive over the Sunshine Skyway, so its outings lean towards the smaller Gulf towns. Anna Maria Island, to the north near Bradenton, keeps an old-Florida village feel. To the south are Venice, a 1920s Mediterranean-revival town with shark teeth on its beaches, and the quiet island village of Boca Grande.

Both beaches are safe for small children, but Clearwater has much more to do off the sand. Pier 60 has lifeguards and a playground, the marine aquarium cares for rescued dolphins and turtles, and pirate boats leave from the marina. Busch Gardens, Adventure Island and the Florida Aquarium are all within about forty minutes.

Siesta Beach is perhaps even better for toddlers, with its very gradual slope and soft sand. Once they tire of it, though, Mote Marine Aquarium on Lido Key is the only major outing nearby.

For a stay that rarely leaves the sand, Siesta Key is the simpler of the two. Clearwater Beach is compact enough to walk, with a trolley down to Sand Key and a ferry or water taxi to downtown. The land around it, though, is spread-out suburbia with slow buses, and the causeway backs up on busy weekends.

Siesta Key is a single flat island about 13km long. Many visitors cycle, the village is easy on foot, and a free open-air trolley runs from the north end to Turtle Beach. Once you cross the bridges a car is the norm in both places, and in winter Siesta Key's bridges and beach car parks fill early.

Siesta Key has the better shopping within reach, though neither is a reason to go. St Armands Circle has upscale boutiques and jewellers, and Sarasota's Main Street adds galleries and bookshops. In Clearwater, shopping means beachwear and souvenirs on the strip and malls on the mainland. The most distinctive things to take home are natural sponges from Tarpon Springs.

Clearwater is the somewhat cheaper of these two expensive coasts, mainly because it offers more range. Its priciest weeks fall in late winter and spring, when spring breakers arrive on top of the northern visitors. A room set back from the beach costs clearly less, and in summer and autumn rates drop across the area, in exchange for heat and the risk of storms.

Siesta Key's high season runs from about January to April. Most visitors stay in beachfront condos and cottages, so there is less cheaper ground to fall back on. Outside those months prices ease noticeably. The beach and the island trolley are free all year, and cooking in a rented kitchen is the main way to keep the bill down, since eating out carries resort prices plus tips.

Siesta Key is far better placed for an evening of performance, thanks to Sarasota. It has a resident opera in a restored 1920s opera house, the Asolo Rep at the Ringling, a ballet company and a symphony orchestra, with touring musicals at the Van Wezel. The season runs from autumn to spring, and on the island itself there is the Sunday sunset drum circle.

Clearwater relies on Ruth Eckerd Hall for touring concerts and Broadway shows, and the Capitol Theatre for smaller ones. For opera and ballet, you drive to Tampa.

Neither has a spa culture, and rest in both comes from the slow pace rather than treatments. Clearwater offers resort hotel spas and the calm of a retirement town, with evenings in the waterfront park below the bluff. Siesta Key adds beach yoga and a few island day spas. Its quiet south end around Crescent and Turtle beaches is the more peaceful place to switch off, at least outside spring break.