Destin or Key West?

These are two very different kinds of beach. Destin has the real thing: fine white quartz sand stretching from Okaloosa Island and Henderson Beach State Park to Miramar Beach, in front of clear green water. Crab Island adds a shallow sandbar on the bay side. The catch is the rip currents on rough days, so watch the flags.

Key West's own beaches are small. Smathers is made of imported sand and Fort Zachary Taylor has a coral-rubble shore, and seagrass and seaweed make it better for floating and snorkelling than for long swims. A proper beach day there means driving about an hour to Bahia Honda.

Neither town is a reason to travel for food, and both eat mainly from the sea. Destin is the place for Gulf fish like red snapper, grouper and amberjack, often caught on a charter that morning and cooked on a harbour deck. Beyond the seafood, the coast highway is mostly chains, and the more ambitious kitchens are along 30A.

Key West has more local character. Cuban sandwiches and strong café con leche from takeaway windows start the day, conch fritters and stone crab fill the menus, and every slice of Key lime pie is up for argument. The fish shacks around the Historic Seaport and Bahama Village are better than the bar food on Duval Street.

Destin is a former fishing village that grew into a resort, and almost nothing old survives. Its sights amount to a small fishing museum, plus the temple mound and the aircraft collection in Fort Walton Beach next door.

Key West is a sight in itself. Old Town is one of the largest districts of historic wooden buildings in the country, full of conch cottages and Victorian houses with verandas. The Hemingway Home, the Truman Little White House and the shipwreck collections tell the stories of the wreckers, writers and presidents who passed through. Two days covers it well.

Key West is clearly the place to stay out. Duval Street is a long run of open-sided bars and old saloons, and you can carry your drink from one to the next until the small hours. The night starts with sunset on Mallory Square, and the upper end of Duval has a long-established gay scene. It is loud and boozy rather than stylish.

In Destin, the evening revolves around the harbour boardwalk and the beach bars on Okaloosa Island, and the most lively drinking is often the afternoon raft-up at Crab Island. Outside summer and spring break, most nights end early.

Both are flat places where the outdoors means the water, and Key West has a slight edge thanks to the Florida Reef. It lies a few kilometres offshore, with rays and turtles in clear water. Add the mangrove flats for kayaking and bonefishing, and the remote Dry Tortugas for birdwatching.

Destin's strengths are deep-sea fishing, since the continental shelf drops off close to shore, and the calm waters of Choctawhatchee Bay for paddling. It also has more on land: high white dunes and rare coastal dune lakes in the state parks to the east.

Destin is the better base for day trips. Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach on 30A are about forty minutes east and are good for an afternoon's walk. Pensacola is an hour west, with its colonial historic district, naval aviation museum and brick forts.

Key West sits at the end of a long road. Its one great outing is the ferry to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. Beyond that you have Marathon's turtle hospital and the drive over the Seven Mile Bridge, and Miami is too far for a day.

Destin is built around family beach trips. It has gentle water and soft sand for small children, condos with kitchens, and a long-running marine park, a water park, go-karts and pirate-ship cruises. The drawbacks are the summer traffic and the rip-current flags that parents need to know.

Key West works better with older children who can snorkel or ride the Dry Tortugas ferry. In town there are a small aquarium and a butterfly conservatory, but Duval Street's drinking and adults-only events like Fantasy Fest set much of the tone.

Getting around is one of the biggest differences between the two. In Key West, Old Town is compact and flat, and almost everything is within a short walk or bike ride of Duval Street. A car is more nuisance than help there, although you will want one to explore the rest of the Keys.

Destin strings out along a single coastal highway that clogs in summer, with few safe crossings for walkers and almost no public transport. Beyond the harbour boardwalk and the 30A bike trail, plan on driving everywhere.

Destin has more for serious shoppers: a big outlet centre near Miramar Beach, an open-air mall of chain stores, and boutiques and home-décor shops in the 30A towns.

Key West sells mostly T-shirts and Key lime soap, but it has more that is local to the place. The Old Town art galleries, hand-rolled cigars from the island's cigar-making past and the harbour sponge shops make for good browsing on an evening walk.

Neither is cheap, but Destin is easier on the budget. A condo with a kitchen, or a room a little inland or on the bay, keeps costs down, and from late autumn to early spring rents fall sharply, though the sea is too cold then.

Key West is much more expensive to sleep in, because land is limited and winter is its high season. You can save by walking and cycling instead of hiring a car, and by eating at Cuban takeaway windows. The cheapest time to go is the hot, stormy late summer.

Key West has more live performance, even if little of it is formal. There are songwriters and cover bands in the Duval bars every night, drag cabaret is a long local tradition, and the street performers at sunset on Mallory Square draw a crowd every evening. The Tennessee Williams Theatre and a winter symphony season round it out.

In Destin, the symphony and touring shows are across the bay in Niceville. Otherwise there is small-scale theatre in Miramar Beach and Seaside, and cover bands on the bar decks.

In Destin, calm comes at the edges of the day and the year. Think of an early walk on empty white sand or a long afternoon on a condo balcony, best in spring or autumn before summer traffic fills the coast highway. For pampering, the spas are in the big golf and beach resorts around Sandestin and Miramar Beach.

Key West makes slowing down easier. Guesthouses in old conch houses are built around small pools and gardens on quiet Old Town lanes, yoga and massage are easy to find, and the island's habit of pausing for sunset keeps the pace unhurried. There are no thermal waters or bathhouses, and the noise of Duval Street is never far away. The calmest stays are on the residential streets, outside the winter season.