Destin or St. Augustine?

Destin has the better beach by some way. The sand is fine white quartz and the Gulf is clear green and usually calm, from Okaloosa Island and Henderson Beach State Park east to Miramar Beach. On the bay side, the shallow Crab Island sandbar is good for wading.

St. Augustine's beaches on Anastasia Island are wide, pale and gently shelving, with easy surf, but the Atlantic there is greener and churned rather than clear. What they have going for them is location. They are ten to fifteen minutes from the old town, so you can sightsee in the morning and swim in the afternoon.

Both cook mainly from the sea, and neither is a reason to book. Destin's strength is its charter harbour, where snapper, grouper and royal red shrimp come straight off the boats and some kitchens will cook your own catch. The coast highway is mostly chains, though, and the more ambitious cooking is out along 30A.

St. Augustine has a flavour of its own in the Minorcan datil pepper, which turns up in hot sauces and a spicy clam chowder. A few chef-led places in the old town and San Marco make for a fuller evening.

The two are hardly comparable here. The Spanish founded St. Augustine in 1565, and it has the coquina-stone Castillo de San Marcos and a Spanish quarter of balconied lanes and walled gardens. There is also a Gilded Age layer in Flagler College and the Lightner Museum, with the Cathedral Basilica and Fort Matanzas on top.

Destin grew out of a fishing village and kept almost nothing old. Its sightseeing is a small fishing museum, plus a Native American temple mound and an outdoor collection of military aircraft in neighbouring Fort Walton Beach.

Destin has a little more going on after dark, and more of it outdoors by the water. The harbour boardwalk bars fill up on summer evenings, boats raft up for afternoon drinking at Crab Island, and a few dance floors stay open late in peak season. Outside summer and spring break it all goes quiet.

St. Augustine is better for a drink after dinner than a big night out. There are pubs, taverns and courtyard cocktail bars around St. George Street and the bayfront, busier at weekends and when Flagler College is in term, and most wind down well before the small hours.

Both are flat, watery coasts, and Destin has a little more to do on its stretch. Deep water lies close to shore, so fishing charters reach big game quickly. Choctawhatchee Bay and the jetties are good for paddling and snorkelling, and the state parks have boardwalk trails around their coastal dune lakes.

St. Augustine's outdoors is quieter salt marsh and maritime forest. You can kayak the creeks among herons and ospreys, walk the marshes and watch birds in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve, or paddleboard on the lagoon in Anastasia State Park.

Neither has a long list, and the two offer different kinds of outing. From Destin the best trip is to the planned pastel towns of Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach, about forty minutes east. Pensacola, an hour west, adds a colonial district, a naval aviation museum and old brick forts.

St. Augustine's day trips are bigger and further away. Jacksonville has museums and gardens, Fernandina Beach is a Victorian port and Daytona has its speedway. Kennedy Space Center and the Orlando theme parks are each about two hours away, which makes for long days.

Destin is the easier family base. On calm days the clear, shallow water suits small children, and condos with pools make long stays simple. The marine park, water park, go-karts and pirate-ship cruises from the harbour are all close by, though getting to them means time in traffic on the coast highway.

St. Augustine works well in a different way. The Alligator Farm, the cannon firings at the Castillo and the lighthouse climb make history fun for children, and the compact centre is easy to manage with them. For rides, though, you have to drive to Orlando.

St. Augustine is easier without a car, at least in the old town. The fort, St. George Street, Flagler College and the bayfront are minutes apart on foot, and sightseeing trolleys loop between them. You still need a short drive or a bike to reach the beaches.

Destin has no such centre. It strings out along one congested coastal highway with few safe crossings, so beyond the harbour boardwalk you drive or use ride-hailing almost everywhere.

Destin has more shopping, and most of it is mainstream. There is a large outlet centre near Miramar Beach and an open-air mall of chain stores, and the 30A towns have more stylish boutiques, galleries and home-décor shops.

St. Augustine has less, but more of it is local. St. George Street is mostly fudge and pirate souvenirs, while Aviles Street has galleries, antique dealers and craft shops. A bottle of datil-pepper sauce makes a better souvenir than anything on Destin's beach strips.

Neither is cheap, but the costs come from different places. In Destin they come from beachfront condos in summer, car hire, parking and paid extras such as charter fishing. Prices fall sharply from late autumn to early spring, when the sea is too cold for swimming.

In St. Augustine the expense is the historic inns and the hotels within walking distance of the old town, especially at weekends. Staying midweek or in a highway motel helps, and the town's best pleasures, the old streets and the public beaches, cost nothing.

St. Augustine has a real stage in its open-air amphitheatre in the woods of Anastasia Island. It brings in touring rock, country and folk acts for much of the year, and the town also has a community theatre and a modest classical series.

Destin's live music is mostly cover bands on bar decks. In summer there are concerts on the lawns of the 30A towns, and the regional symphony plays across the bay in Niceville.

Neither town has a spa tradition, so the choice is between two kinds of quiet. Destin has the bigger spas, in the golf and beach resorts around Sandestin and Miramar Beach, and they are better suited than anything in St. Augustine to a full afternoon of treatments. The rest of its calm comes from the sea itself. A walk along an empty shoreline at sunrise is the best of it, in spring or autumn before summer traffic fills the coast.

St. Augustine offers less pampering: a few hotel treatment rooms and small day spas, fine for a massage but not for a whole day. Its calm is that of a small old town rather than a beach, a book on a guesthouse porch or a slow walk by the water at dusk. It is quietest on weekdays.