Clearwater or St. Pete Beach?

Both towns have the same fine, pale sand and calm, shallow Gulf water, and the sea warms at the same pace through the year. What differs is the feel of the main beach. Clearwater's is centred on Pier 60, a busy and well-equipped stretch where a crowd gathers every evening for the sunset. It also makes wild sand easier to reach without a car, because Caladesi Island's undeveloped shore is a long walk north along the beach.

St. Pete Beach is quieter at its best. At Pass-a-Grille, on the southern tip, low buildings back a wide beach where you watch the sun go down from your towel rather than from a crowded pier. Its wilder sand takes a short drive or a boat trip: the pine-backed beaches of Fort De Soto and the empty shore of Shell Key.

Neither is a place to travel for the food. Both offer the same Gulf menu of grouper sandwiches, shrimp, smoked fish spread and stone crab, eaten on open-air decks. Clearwater has a few more local places downtown, and the Greek bakeries and tavernas of Tarpon Springs are a short drive north.

At St. Pete Beach, the sit-down meals are in Pass-a-Grille and on Corey Avenue. For coffee roasters, breweries and more ambitious cooking, St. Petersburg is a short drive across the causeways.

Neither town has much to see, and for serious museums both send you across the bay. Clearwater has its early twentieth-century downtown on the bluff and a restored 1920s theatre. St. Pete Beach has the pink Don CeSar hotel, the old beach cottages of Pass-a-Grille's historic district and the Spanish-American War batteries at Fort De Soto, which add up to a pleasant afternoon of looking around.

Both towns gather for the sunset, and Clearwater keeps going a little longer afterwards. The crowd at Pier 60 moves on to tiki decks and waterfront grills with cover bands, and in spring a younger crowd keeps things loud late into the night.

St. Pete Beach quietens soon after dark, apart from a few bars on Corey Avenue and in the big resorts. Neither has clubs. A proper night out means Ybor City or downtown St. Petersburg, which is the closer of the two from St. Pete Beach.

The scenery is the same flat, watery mix of mangroves, seagrass and barrier islands, and in both places you spend most of your time out on the water. Clearwater's state parks on Caladesi and Honeymoon Islands add trails through pine flatwoods with nesting ospreys, and the long Pinellas Trail is good for easy cycling.

St. Pete Beach looks out on the wide mouth of Tampa Bay. Its highlights are the kayak trails at Fort De Soto and Shell Key, and roseate spoonbills for birdwatchers.

Both are good bases for the same Tampa Bay outings, and both need a car. Clearwater, further north, has Tarpon Springs' sponge docks and Greek cathedral close at hand.

St. Pete Beach is closer to St. Petersburg's Dalí Museum and waterfront. It also faces south over the Sunshine Skyway towards Sarasota's Ringling estate and the old-Florida beach towns of Anna Maria Island. Orlando is a long day from either.

Both have the shallow, calm water small children need, but Clearwater has more within easy reach. Pier 60 has lifeguards and a playground, the marine aquarium with its rescued dolphins and turtles is in town, and Busch Gardens and the Tampa water park are about forty minutes away.

St. Pete Beach makes up for it with hotel pools right on the sand, shelling on Shell Key and the fort and fishing pier at Fort De Soto. Its bigger attractions, including Clearwater's aquarium, mean longer drives.

In both places you can walk around the beach itself and will want a car for anything further. Clearwater's beach trolley runs down to Sand Key, and a ferry and water taxi cross to downtown, but the causeway backs up on busy weekends.

St. Pete Beach is a single narrow strip along Gulf Boulevard with its own trolley. The small centres of Pass-a-Grille and Corey Avenue are pleasant to walk or cycle.

Shopping is an afterthought in both, but Clearwater covers more of the basics. Beyond the beachwear strip it has regional malls and big-box stores on the mainland, a few independent shops downtown, and Tarpon Springs' natural sponges nearby.

St. Pete Beach has little beyond swimwear and souvenirs. Its best are the boutiques and galleries on Corey Avenue and Pass-a-Grille's small craft shops, and any mall means driving inland.

Both are expensive, and most expensive in the late-winter and spring peak, with resort-level restaurant bills and tips on top. On a tighter budget in Clearwater, stay in a mainland motel or a condo with a kitchen.

In St. Pete Beach, the cheaper option is an older motel a block back from the sand, though a hire car is almost unavoidable. In both places the beaches are free apart from parking, and late summer brings lower rates.

Here Clearwater is clearly ahead. Ruth Eckerd Hall brings touring rock and pop acts, comedians, Broadway tours and orchestral concerts, and the restored Capitol Theatre puts on smaller shows in an intimate 1920s hall.

In St. Pete Beach, live performance means cover bands on beach decks. Anything more means a drive to St. Petersburg's theatres and the Florida Orchestra, or to Tampa for opera and touring musicals.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so in both places treatments mean resort spas and day spas. Rest comes from the slow pace. Clearwater has the calm of a retirement town, with hotel pools, early nights and evenings in the waterfront park below the bluff.

St. Pete Beach is built around the sand itself: a morning walk on the beach, a long afternoon and a sunset everyone stops for, with Pass-a-Grille the most unhurried corner. Avoid spring break in either.