Daytona Beach or West Palm Beach?

Both are serious beach destinations, but the beaches work in different ways. In Daytona the beach is the town itself: one wide, hard-packed strip of sand on the barrier island, firm enough to drive on in places. The surf, the greenish water and the rip currents mean you swim near lifeguards, and winter is too cool for most swimmers.

West Palm Beach's beaches are across the lagoon, a short drive or bike ride over the bridges. They have softer sand and clearer water at Midtown Beach and Phipps Ocean Park, quieter stretches on Singer Island and Juno, and sheltered swimming at Peanut Island. Thanks to the Gulf Stream you can swim there in January too.

West Palm Beach eats noticeably better. It has waterfront terraces and seafood rooms around Clematis Street and Rosemary Square, more local places in Northwood, and formal dining rooms on Palm Beach. Stone crab in season and the Cuban and Haitian bakeries away from the centre give it some regional character.

Daytona's best meals are fried shrimp and smoked fish dip on the decks of the fish camps along the Halifax River and towards Ponce Inlet. Away from those, chain restaurants line the main roads.

West Palm Beach has more to see. The Norton Museum's American, European and Chinese collections, Flagler's marble Whitehall mansion and an afternoon among Palm Beach's Mediterranean Revival villas add up to two or three full days.

Daytona's sights centre on speed. You can tour the Speedway, and the Museum of Arts and Sciences has a fine collection of Cuban art. Add a climb up the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse and most visitors have seen the town in a day or two.

Neither town is a big night out, and they differ in the kind of crowd. Daytona's nights belong to bikers and race fans: Main Street saloons spill onto the pavement during Bike Week and race weeks, and the rest of the year is mostly tiki bars and sunset drinks. West Palm Beach goes for cocktails and rooftop terraces on Clematis Street, with a couple of places to dance, busy at weekends with young professionals. For real clubbing, people from both towns head elsewhere.

The outdoors is roughly equal in both, but the wildlife is in different places. Around Daytona you watch it from a kayak or a boardwalk: the undeveloped dunes of Canaveral National Seashore, dolphins in Mosquito Lagoon, birding at Merritt Island and manatees at Blue Spring in winter.

West Palm Beach's best nature is underwater. Seahorses and octopus live at the shore dive under the Blue Heron Bridge, and Gulf Stream reefs lie a short boat ride offshore. On land there are alligators in Grassy Waters and the Loxahatchee refuge, and turtle nesting beaches around Juno.

Daytona has the more varied outings. St Augustine's Spanish fort and old streets lie to the north, Kennedy Space Center to the south and the Orlando theme parks inland, each about an hour's drive or a little more, and each a real change from beach life.

West Palm Beach has one big draw: Miami, an easy hour by fast train. Fort Lauderdale, Delray Beach and Boca Raton are pleasant, but they are coastal towns much like the one you are staying in.

West Palm Beach has a slight edge with children. Calm water at Peanut Island, the drive-through animals of Lion Country Safari, the zoo, the science centre and the free Manatee Lagoon give you a varied week, though there is no big theme park nearby.

Daytona keeps it simpler: arcades and rides on the boardwalk, plenty of room on the sand and Orlando's parks an hour away. The rip currents and the noise of the event weeks are worth planning around.

West Palm Beach is much easier without a car. Its compact downtown is walkable, a free trolley links the waterfront with Clematis Street, and trains run south to Miami. You can also cycle over the bridges to Palm Beach.

In Daytona nearly everything is strung along wide roads on both sides of the river, and the buses run too rarely to rely on. Apart from walking or cycling along the sand, you will need a car, and traffic jams badly during the big events.

This is where the two differ most. Worth Avenue gives West Palm Beach a proper luxury street, with jewellers, fashion houses and galleries set around Mediterranean courtyards. The island's consignment shops and Antique Row's furniture dealers are good for an afternoon's browsing.

Shopping in Daytona is practical: an outlet centre, a mall, beach shops and the motorcycle gear of Main Street. A few independent shops on Beach Street are as close as it gets to browsing.

Daytona is the cheaper of the two. It has plenty of older motels and condo rentals, and seafood shacks and diners keep meals affordable, though rates jump sharply around the Daytona 500 and Bike Week.

West Palm Beach is priced for a wealthy winter crowd, and hotels on Palm Beach are among the most expensive on this coast. Summer brings real savings there, in exchange for heat and storms. In both towns you need to budget for a car and tipping.

Both calendars come alive in the cooler months, but only one has real depth. In Daytona the best of it is the symphony society's winter series of visiting orchestras and soloists. The Peabody Auditorium takes touring Broadway shows, and the oceanfront bandshell has free concerts on summer evenings. There is no opera and no theatre district, so anyone who wants more drives inland to Orlando.

From late autumn to spring, West Palm Beach can fill most evenings of a stay. The Kravis Center alone covers musicals, orchestras, dance and the Palm Beach Opera, Palm Beach Dramaworks stages serious plays on Clematis Street, and the Society of the Four Arts adds concerts on the island. In summer the programme thins out, and the big touring gigs move to the amphitheatre west of town.

For a few quiet days, what matters is how dependable the calm is. Daytona's rest is the unplanned kind: a morning walk on sand firm enough to cycle on, an afternoon by the condo pool, the light fading over the Halifax River. Treatments come mostly from a few big oceanfront resort spas and a small number of massage studios. When the Speedway is racing or the motorcycle rallies arrive, engines take over the town for days at a time.

West Palm Beach is the better place to unwind. Across the lagoon, Palm Beach stays hushed and manicured through the year, with no event weeks to break the peace. Its large resort spas are backed by plenty of smaller day spas on the mainland, and an early walk on the Lake Trail or an evening along the downtown waterfront rounds off the day.