Destin or Marco Island?

The beaches are equally good, but they feel different. Destin has a long ribbon of white quartz sand and clear green water, running from Okaloosa Island and Henderson Beach past Miramar Beach to the dune lakes of 30A. On the bay side is the Crab Island sandbar, where boats anchor in the shallows. The Gulf here can turn rough, and the flags and rip currents need watching.

Marco Island is a single broad crescent of shallow, surf-free water. At low tide it's good for shelling and long walks, and at Tigertail you can wade across a lagoon to a sandbar. The wild beach on Keewaydin Island is a short boat ride away. The sea also stays a few degrees warmer in winter.

Destin eats slightly better. It's a working fishing harbour, where charter boats land red snapper, grouper and royal red shrimp and some places will cook what you caught. The more ambitious kitchens along 30A are within reach, but the coast highway itself is mostly chains with long summer waits.

Marco Island serves the same Gulf menu at waterfront grills and resort dining rooms, plus stone crab claws in the cooler months and plates of fish eaten on the docks at Goodland. Beyond that the choice is narrow, so for a special dinner most people drive to Naples.

Neither has much history to see, because both are resorts built in the twentieth century. Destin has a small fishing museum, and nearby Fort Walton Beach adds a prehistoric temple mound and an outdoor display of military aircraft. Marco Island has one strong stop: its historical museum, which tells the story of the Calusa people and the carved wooden figures found on the island in the 1890s.

Destin has the livelier evenings. Open-air bars on the harbour boardwalk and beach bars on Okaloosa Island fill up in summer, boats raft up for afternoon drinks at Crab Island, and a few dance floors stay open late in peak season. It's still flip-flop drinking, though, and it goes quiet outside summer and spring break.

On Marco Island the evening is a sunset drink and a late dinner, then the island goes to bed. Its busiest moment is a winter weekend afternoon at the dockside bars in Goodland.

Marco Island has the richer wild landscape. It sits on the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands, with mangrove channels to paddle, manatees in the canals and some of Florida's best inshore fishing. Rookery Bay is next door, and Everglades National Park, Big Cypress and the Fakahatchee Strand, with their alligators and cypress boardwalks, are all within an hour.

Destin's nature is mostly offshore. The continental shelf is close, so deep-sea charters reach big fish quickly, and calm Choctawhatchee Bay suits paddling and dolphin spotting. On land the high white dunes and the rare coastal dune lakes east of town are attractive, but there's less wildlife to see.

There is a similar number of outings from each, but of different kinds. From Destin they are about towns. The pastel planned towns of 30A, Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach, are less than an hour away, and Pensacola, with its colonial district, naval aviation museum and brick forts, is an hour west.

From Marco Island the best outings head into nature: Everglades City and the old trading post at Chokoloskee. For towns there's Naples half an hour north, and Fort Myers, home of the Edison and Ford Winter Estates, a little further.

Destin is better set up for children. Alongside the soft sand there are the marine park on Okaloosa Island, a large water park, go-karts, mini golf and pirate-ship cruises from the harbour, and condos with kitchens make long stays easy. On rough days, though, rip currents make the Gulf a real danger, and summer traffic can wear everyone out.

Marco Island suits younger children in a simpler way: calm, shallow water, shelling, wading at Tigertail and children's programmes at the resorts. For a zoo or a children's museum you have to drive to Naples.

You'll need a car in both. Destin stretches along one coastal highway that clogs up in summer and has few safe crossings on foot. Marco Island is small and flat, with cycle paths along its main roads, so in the cooler months you can bike between beach, shops and dinner. Anything off the island still means driving, including the airport about three quarters of an hour away.

Destin has more shopping close by. There's a large outlet centre near Miramar Beach, an open-air mall with the main chain stores, and the boutiques and home-décor shops of the 30A towns.

On Marco Island itself there are only a few plazas selling resort wear, shells and coastal art. For proper shopping you go to Naples, where Fifth Avenue South has more upmarket boutiques than anything near Destin.

Neither is cheap, but Destin is easier on the budget. Its expensive months are late spring and summer, and from late autumn to early spring rentals cost far less, although the sea is then too cold for swimming. Renting a condo with a kitchen, or staying inland or on the bay, helps.

Marco Island charges more for rooms and meals and has its peak from January to April. Its cheaper season is the hot, stormy summer. Weekly condo rentals help, but it never feels like a bargain.

Marco Island is slightly ahead, thanks to Naples half an hour away, where the performing arts centre hosts the philharmonic and touring shows in winter. On the island there's a small community theatre and musicians in the resort bars.

Destin's symphony and touring productions play across the bay at a college arts centre in Niceville. In summer there are outdoor concerts on the 30A lawns, but most live music is cover bands on bar decks.

Marco Island is the more restful of the two. The whole island moves slowly, the big resorts have full-service spas and pools facing the Gulf, and the plazas offer yoga and day spas.

Destin's pampering is mostly in the golf and beach resorts around Sandestin and Miramar Beach. It's calm on spring and autumn mornings, but summer traffic and crowds take most of that calm away.