Clearwater or Virginia Beach?

Both towns are built around the beach, but Clearwater's is the better one. Its powder-white sand slopes into calm, clear Gulf water you can wade far out into, and the wild beaches of Caladesi and Honeymoon Island are a short trip away.

Virginia Beach has a wide strip of sand and a boardwalk on the open Atlantic, with surf near the fishing pier. It also has some variety: calm bay beaches by First Landing and dunes at Sandbridge. The water is cooler, though, and the swimming season much shorter.

Both cities eat mainly seafood in casual, chain-heavy resort settings, so neither is a food destination. The difference is what you order. In Clearwater it is the grouper sandwich, stone crab and smoked fish spread at fish shacks.

Virginia Beach looks to the Chesapeake: Lynnhaven oysters, blue crab and she-crab soup, best found around Lynnhaven Inlet rather than on the Oceanfront. For more variety, locals and visitors drive into Norfolk.

Virginia Beach has more history on its own ground, though neither city has much to see. Cape Henry marks the spot where English colonists came ashore in 1607, beside a lighthouse from the eighteenth century, and the Adam Thoroughgood House is a rare early colonial home that has survived.

Clearwater has a few early twentieth-century buildings and a restored 1920s theatre downtown, and little else. For art, you drive to St Petersburg or Tampa.

Evenings are low-key in both, and the serious nights out are about half an hour away, in Tampa's Ybor City or Norfolk's Ghent. In Clearwater the night revolves around the sunset at Pier 60, followed by tiki decks with cover bands. Virginia Beach is rowdier in summer along Atlantic Avenue, with rooftop decks, sports bars and sailors from the navy bases, and Town Center has a quieter cluster of cocktail bars.

Both are flat, watery coasts with dolphins offshore and no hills. Clearwater's coast is subtropical, with mangrove channels to kayak, manatees in winter and the long Pinellas Trail for easy cycling. Virginia Beach has cypress swamp and maritime forest at First Landing, the empty barrier spit of Back Bay and False Cape, waterfowl in winter and a long surfing tradition.

You need a car for outings from either city, but Virginia Beach has the stronger single day out: Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown together, about an hour away. Kitty Hawk and the battleship in Norfolk add more.

Clearwater's outings are varied rather than deep. You can choose between the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the old cigar quarter of Ybor City, the Ringling Museum in Sarasota and Orlando's theme parks about two hours away.

At Clearwater, the main beach by the hotels slopes gently into calm, shallow water, with a playground and lifeguards at Pier 60. At Virginia Beach, families with toddlers do better on the bay side than on the Atlantic surf. Apart from that, the two are evenly matched for children, and each has a marine centre: Clearwater's rescues dolphins and sea turtles, while Virginia Beach's has river otters and a marsh trail.

For bigger rides, Clearwater has Busch Gardens and Adventure Island in Tampa. Virginia Beach has the European-themed park near Williamsburg, and Colonial Williamsburg itself is good for children, who can join in with the costumed tradespeople.

These two are equally car-dependent. Clearwater Beach is compact enough to walk, with a trolley to Sand Key and a ferry to downtown. At Virginia Beach you walk or cycle the Oceanfront along the boardwalk, with a summer trolley on Atlantic Avenue. Beyond those strips, both are suburban sprawl with slow buses and heavy traffic at peak times, on the causeway in Clearwater and into the resort area in Virginia Beach.

Neither is worth a shopping trip, though Virginia Beach offers a little more: the outdoor streets of Town Center, a large regional mall and surf shops with deep local roots. Clearwater's beach strip sells beachwear and souvenirs, and the most distinctive thing to take home is a natural sponge from Tarpon Springs.

The two cities are cheapest at opposite times of year. Clearwater costs most in late winter and spring, just when its weather is best, and rooms get cheaper in the summer and autumn heat. Virginia Beach is at its most expensive in summer, and its oceanfront rooms drop sharply once the season ends.

Over a year, Virginia Beach comes out slightly cheaper, though the car you need there adds to the bill. In Clearwater, condos with kitchens and motels on the mainland help keep costs down. In both cities, tips go on top of the bill when you eat out.

The two are much the same for live performance. Clearwater has Ruth Eckerd Hall for touring acts and Broadway shows, plus the small 1920s Capitol Theatre. Virginia Beach relies on a summer amphitheatre for rock and country and free concerts along the boardwalk. For opera you drive to Tampa from Clearwater, or to Norfolk, home of the Virginia Opera and Symphony, from Virginia Beach.

Neither city has a bathing culture, and in both a spa usually means a hotel's treatment rooms. Clearwater is still the more restful, because the whole town moves at a retirement pace and nothing needs an early start.

Virginia Beach is calm on the boardwalk early in the morning and through spring and autumn. In high summer, though, the resort is loud and crowded.