Destin or Miami?

Both are first-rate beach destinations, so the real difference is character. Destin has fine white quartz sand and clear green Gulf water, with state-park stretches, the dune lakes of 30A and the Crab Island sandbar for wading. Miami has one long, built-up strip of pale sand from South Beach to Surfside, with calmer, shallower water at Key Biscayne.

The bigger split is the calendar. Miami's Atlantic stays swimmable through the winter, while Destin's Gulf is too cold from late autumn until spring. Each has its own hazard: rip currents and red flags in Destin, sargassum and hurricane season in Miami.

Destin is good if you want fish. Snapper, grouper and royal red shrimp come straight off the harbour boats, some places will cook your own catch, and you eat it on a waterfront deck. Beyond that the coast highway is mostly chains, and the more ambitious kitchens are out along 30A.

Miami has far more range. There is Cuban cafecito and croquetas on Calle Ocho, arepas, ceviche and griot across the neighbourhoods, and stone crab in winter. Add the chef-led tier in Brickell and the Design District, and food becomes a reason to go.

In Destin, culture is something you drive to. The town itself is a modern resort with only a modest museum to its fishing past. The two outings worth making, the prehistoric temple mound and the park of military aircraft, are next door in Fort Walton Beach, and together they fill a rainy afternoon rather than give you a reason to come.

In Miami, culture is part of the place you stay. In South Beach the streamlined 1930s hotels line the streets you walk along anyway, so you see them on the way to the beach. In Little Havana the Cuban exile story is still part of daily life in the cafés and on Calle Ocho, rather than kept behind glass. Its history goes back barely a century, but it gives a few days of looking, which Destin cannot.

Nights in Destin mean frozen drinks on the decks along the harbour boardwalk and at the Okaloosa Island beach bars. Often the liveliest hours are in the afternoon, when the boats raft up at Crab Island. Outside summer and spring break, most evenings end early.

Miami works on another scale. It has big DJ clubs with dress codes in South Beach, downtown and Park West rooms that run until dawn, Wynwood breweries, Brickell cocktail rooftops and salsa nights on Calle Ocho. It rewards a full wallet and stamina, and Destin has nothing like it.

Both are flat and built around water, but Miami has the bigger draw. The Everglades are on its western edge, with airboats, the Anhinga Trail and the Shark Valley cycle loop, and you can snorkel on the reefs of Biscayne National Park and Key Largo.

Destin's strength is fishing. The deep water is close enough for charters to reach big game fish quickly, and Choctawhatchee Bay is calm for paddling and spotting dolphins. Its white dunes and rare coastal dune lakes are lovely but quieter. Miami is best outdoors in winter, while Destin's mild months are spring and autumn.

Neither is a great base for outings, but the options differ in kind. From Destin, the best trips are to the planned pastel towns of 30A, such as Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach, under an hour east, and to Pensacola's colonial district, naval aviation museum and brick forts to the west.

Miami's trips involve longer drives: Fort Lauderdale's canals, Palm Beach's Gilded Age mansions and the Flagler Museum, or the Upper Keys for seafood shacks. Key West is the tempting one, but it really needs an overnight stay.

Destin is built around family beach weeks. It has gentle water on calm days, condos with pools and kitchens, and a marine park with dolphin shows, a water park, go-karts and pirate-ship cruises close at hand. The things to manage are summer traffic and the rip-current flags.

Miami offers more varied days out, from Zoo Miami and the Frost Science Museum to the Venetian Pool and Everglades airboats, with Key Biscayne and North Beach for quieter sand. But distances are longer, the summer heat is harder on children, and South Beach's party side is not where most parents want to stay.

Destin is strung along one coastal highway that jams in summer, with few safe crossings and almost no public transport, so you need a car. Only the harbour boardwalk and the bike trail along 30A are pleasant without one.

Miami is still a car city, but a stay in South Beach can be managed on foot, by bike and by ride-hailing, and the free Metromover links downtown and Brickell. You only need a hire car for the Everglades, the Keys or Palm Beach.

Destin's shopping comes down to the big outlet centre near Miramar Beach, an open-air chain mall and swimwear shops, with boutiques and galleries in the 30A towns if you want something more stylish. Miami is in a higher league, with designer flagships in the Design District, the exclusive open-air mall at Bal Harbour, the huge Aventura Mall and Lincoln Road for mainstream brands. Neither has much in the way of markets or crafts, though Little Havana's cigar shops and guayabera makers give Miami some local character.

Neither is cheap, but Destin is easier to keep in check. Renting a condo with a kitchen, staying inland or on the bay, and visiting off season all cut costs sharply, although by then the Gulf is too cold to swim in.

Miami piles resort fees, parking, tax, tips and some of the costliest club drinks anywhere on top of high winter room rates. The free beaches, Cuban lunch counters, the free Metromover and a base on the mainland all help, but its cheaper season is the hot, stormy summer.

In Destin, live performance is mostly cover bands and acoustic sets on bar decks. There is also small-scale theatre in Miramar Beach and Seaside, summer concerts on the 30A lawns, and the regional symphony a drive across the bay in Niceville.

Miami has a proper arts calendar. Florida Grand Opera and touring Broadway shows play the Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami City Ballet is a company of real standing, and a training orchestra for young musicians performs in a Frank Gehry building. Salsa and timba bands play in Little Havana. Its season is concentrated in winter.

Neither has much of a bathing tradition, so in both cases it comes down mostly to resort spas. Destin's are in the golf and beach resorts around Sandestin and Miramar Beach, and its calm is a simple one: early walks on empty sand in spring and autumn.

Miami offers more. There are large spa floors in the Miami Beach and Key Biscayne hotels, yoga on the sand at sunrise, and a long-established Russian and Turkish bath house with steam rooms and cold plunges. For real quiet, stay on Key Biscayne or around Surfside rather than in South Beach.