Daytona Beach or Palm Beach?

Both towns live on the Atlantic and both give you a proper beach vacation, but the sand and the sea are very different. Daytona's shore is a broad, hard-packed strip about 37km long, with room for everyone and cars allowed on parts of it. The water is greenish, though, waves are usual and rip currents make the lifeguarded zones important.

Palm Beach has the better water: clear, blue-green and warm even in winter thanks to the Gulf Stream. It has less sand, since much of the island's shore sits behind seawalls or private estates and narrows at high tide. Wider, livelier beaches lie a short drive away at Singer Island, Jupiter or Delray, and Peanut Island has calm shallows for snorkelling.

Palm Beach eats better. On the island it means formal French and Italian dining, long terrace lunches and stone crab in season. Across the bridge, West Palm Beach adds Cuban bakeries, Caribbean takeaways and a weekend green market.

Daytona is simpler and more casual. Fried shrimp, grouper sandwiches and smoked fish dip on the deck of a river fish camp are the best of it, and chain restaurants fill the main roads. Neither town is a reason to travel for food.

Palm Beach has more to see, and it tells one Gilded Age story. Flagler's Whitehall mansion, Mizner's Mediterranean Revival vias and church, and the estates along South Ocean Boulevard set the tone. Across the lagoon, the Norton Museum adds strong American, European and Chinese collections.

Daytona's heritage is speed. A tour of the Speedway and the history of land-speed runs on the beach are what make it distinctive. The Museum of Arts and Sciences, with its Cuban art and planetarium, and the climb up the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse fill out a day or two.

Daytona is the livelier place to go out, in a particular style. It has sports bars, tiki bars and the biker saloons of Main Street, which spill onto the street during Bike Week, Biketoberfest and race weeks. Outside those weeks it settles into sunset drinks.

Palm Beach island is quiet by eleven, and much of its social life happens in private clubs. For bars, rooftop terraces and a little dancing you cross to Clematis Street and Rosemary Square in West Palm Beach. That is fine for a night or two but smaller and more predictable.

The two are close for the outdoors. Both are flat and warm, and both are best enjoyed early in the day, but their strengths differ. Daytona's lie above the water: kayaking the Mosquito Lagoon in Canaveral National Seashore among dolphins, birding at Merritt Island, winter manatees at Blue Spring and surf near Ponce Inlet.

Palm Beach's lie below it. Reefs sit close offshore, and the shallow dive under the Blue Heron Bridge is known for seahorses and octopus. On land, the Loxahatchee refuge on the edge of the Everglades shows you alligators from a boardwalk.

Daytona has the stronger set of outings because they are so varied. St Augustine's Spanish fort and old streets are an hour north, Kennedy Space Center lies to the south and Orlando's theme parks are inland, all easy by car.

From Palm Beach the standout outing is Miami, easy by fast train without driving, with Fort Lauderdale on the way. The nearer towns of Delray, Boca Raton and Jupiter are pleasant but alike, and older heritage is scarce.

Both work for families, in different ways. Daytona suits a simple beach stay best, with wide sand, the boardwalk's arcades and rides, condos with pools, and Orlando's parks an hour away. Rip currents and event crowds need watching.

Palm Beach island itself feels made for adults, and children can feel out of place there. The mainland makes up for it with the zoo, the science centre and aquarium, Manatee Lagoon and the gentle shallows of Peanut Island.

Neither is a place to manage without a car, but Palm Beach is easier. Its core around Worth Avenue is walkable and the Lake Trail makes cycling a pleasure. Downtown West Palm Beach has a free trolley, and the fast train reaches Miami.

Daytona is spread along long roads on both sides of the river, and its buses are too infrequent to rely on. Only the beach and boardwalk area work on foot, and traffic jams badly during big events.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Palm Beach has Worth Avenue, a true luxury street of major houses and jewellers set in Mizner's courtyards, plus designer consignment shops and the dealers of Antique Row. Daytona's shopping is practical: an outlet centre, a mall, beachwear and Main Street's motorcycle gear, with a few galleries on Beach Street.

Daytona costs far less. Older oceanfront motels and condo rentals keep rooms reasonable, and fish-camp seafood and diners do the same for meals, as long as you avoid the Daytona 500 and Bike Week, when room rates jump.

Palm Beach is one of the most expensive resort towns in the country, from island hotels in winter to parking by the beach. Staying in West Palm Beach, coming in summer or sticking to free pleasures such as the Lake Trail all help, but the gap remains.

Palm Beach has the fuller winter season. It centres on the Kravis Center, with touring Broadway, ballet, visiting orchestras and the short Palm Beach Opera season, while Palm Beach Dramaworks stages serious plays and the Four Arts hosts chamber concerts.

Daytona's offer is modest but real. A winter series brings visiting orchestras, the Peabody Auditorium hosts touring shows, and the oceanfront bandshell has free concerts in summer. For anything more, people drive to Orlando.

Palm Beach is the better place to unwind. The island is quiet and manicured, the big oceanfront resort spas have full treatment menus and salt-water pools, and beach yoga is easy to find. Daytona's calm is more casual, built on early walks on the hard sand and afternoons by a condo pool, with only a few resort and day spas, and it disappears when Bike Week or race weeks fill the town.