Destin or St. Pete Beach?

Both towns have the same fine white quartz sand, so the difference is in the water and the setting. Destin faces open Gulf water of a striking clear green, backed by high dunes and the rare dune lakes towards 30A. On the bay side, the Crab Island sandbar turns wading into a social event. The surf can turn rough, and rip-current flags need watching.

St. Pete Beach has calmer, shallower water with little surf, and it faces west, so the sunset is part of every beach day. Fort De Soto and the boat-only sands of Shell Key give it wilder, emptier stretches. The occasional red tide is its main drawback.

Neither is a place to plan a trip around eating, and both rely on Gulf seafood served casually by the water. Destin's version centres on the charter harbour, where snapper, grouper and royal red shrimp come straight off the boats and some kitchens will cook your own catch. St. Pete Beach leans towards stone crab claws, smoked fish spread and sunset dinners on a deck. When you want more ambition, Destin sends you east to the 30A resort towns and St. Pete Beach sends you across the causeway to St. Petersburg.

Neither offers much here, and both rely on neighbours. Destin's sights are a small fishing museum, plus a Native American temple mound and a field of military aircraft in Fort Walton Beach. St. Pete Beach has a little more character on its own doorstep: the pink 1920s Don CeSar, the old cottages of Pass-a-Grille and the war-era batteries at Fort De Soto. Serious museums are only half an hour away in St. Petersburg.

Destin gives you more to do after dark, though neither is a party town. Its harbour boardwalk fills with open-air bars on summer nights, and a few dance floors stay open late in peak season. The day's real social peak often comes in the afternoon, when boats raft up at Crab Island.

St. Pete Beach is built around sundowners on tiki decks and at Pass-a-Grille, and most visitors are done not long after dark. A bigger night means a half-hour drive into downtown St. Petersburg.

Both are flat coastal places where the outdoors means water, and the difference is what you do on it. Destin is a serious fishing town, because deep water lies close enough to shore that charters reach big game fish quickly. On land, its state parks have high dunes and rare coastal dune lakes, with canoeing on the Panhandle rivers inland.

St. Pete Beach is gentler and greener. You paddle through mangrove channels at Fort De Soto, look for manatees in the cooler months and watch roseate spoonbills on the flats.

St. Pete Beach has far better outings. St. Petersburg's waterfront and Dalí Museum are half an hour away. Within about an hour you can reach Tampa's Ybor City, the Greek sponge-diving town of Tarpon Springs, and Sarasota's Ringling estate across the Sunshine Skyway.

Destin has two good options. The planned pastel towns of Seaside and Rosemary Beach on 30A are about forty minutes away, and Pensacola's colonial district and naval aviation museum are about an hour west. After that, most drives lead to more of the same resort coast.

Both make easy family beach trips, with soft sand and calm water on good days. The difference is where the extras are. In Destin they sit right on the coast highway: the marine park on Okaloosa Island with its dolphin shows, a water park, go-karts, mini golf and pirate-ship cruises, all a short drive from a condo with a kitchen.

St. Pete Beach keeps things simpler in town, with shelling at Shell Key and the fishing pier at Fort De Soto. Bigger attractions, such as the aquariums in Clearwater and Tampa and Busch Gardens, are up to an hour's drive away. Its shallower, gentler water makes it slightly less worrying with toddlers.

Getting around is a little easier in St. Pete Beach, though a car helps in both. A beach trolley runs the length of Gulf Boulevard, and Pass-a-Grille and Corey Avenue are compact enough to explore on foot or by bike.

Destin stretches along one congested highway with few safe places to cross. Walking is mostly limited to the harbour boardwalk, and for a visitor public transport hardly exists.

Destin is clearly the better place to shop. The big outlet centre near Miramar Beach draws shoppers from across the region, an open-air mall has the main chain stores, and the 30A towns add smart boutiques and home-décor shops.

St. Pete Beach has swimwear and souvenirs along Gulf Boulevard, plus a few independent boutiques on Corey Avenue and craft shops in Pass-a-Grille. For anything more you need to drive inland.

Both are expensive American resort coasts, but the cheap seasons fall at different times. Destin is at its dearest in summer and much cheaper from late autumn to early spring, when the sea is too cold for swimming. St. Pete Beach charges its highest rates from February to April, when northern visitors arrive for the mild weather, and late summer is its quieter, cheaper season. Renting a condo with a kitchen in Destin, or an older motel a block back from the sand in St. Pete Beach, helps keep costs down.

Destin's live performance is spread thinly along its own stretch of coast, while St. Pete Beach is a short drive from proper concert halls. From Destin, the regional symphony and touring shows mean crossing the bay to the college arts centre in Niceville. Summer adds outdoor concerts on the 30A lawns and small theatre in Seaside.

St. Pete Beach has the Florida Orchestra's season and mid-sized theatres in St. Petersburg close by, and Tampa's large performing arts centre, about 45 minutes away, takes touring musicals and opera. In both towns, the music you hear without getting in the car is cover bands and acoustic sets on bar decks.

St. Pete Beach is the more restful of the two. Its slow rhythm of morning walks, long afternoons and a sunset that everyone stops to watch comes naturally. Pass-a-Grille in particular feels unhurried outside the spring-break weeks.

Destin's pampering is concentrated in the large golf and beach resorts around Sandestin and Miramar Beach. Its quiet moments come mainly in spring and autumn, because summer traffic on the coast highway takes away much of the calm.