Destin or Williamsburg, Virginia?

Destin is far ahead on beaches. Fine white quartz sand and clear green Gulf water run from Okaloosa Island and Henderson Beach State Park east towards the dune lakes of 30A, and the sea stays warm from late spring into October. The thing to watch is rip currents, so keep an eye on the flags.

Williamsburg sits inland between two rivers, so a swim means a hotel pool, a water park or an outing: the small calm strip at Yorktown, Buckroe Beach on the Chesapeake, or Virginia Beach about an hour's drive away. The water there is cooler and the season shorter, and sea nettles can drift into the bay in high summer.

Neither town is worth the trip for its food alone, but Destin has the edge because of its harbour. Charter boats land snapper, grouper and royal red shrimp, which you can eat on a waterfront deck, and some places will cook your own catch. The more ambitious kitchens are out along 30A.

Williamsburg's strength is plain Virginia cooking: ham biscuits, peanut soup, crab cakes and Brunswick stew. Its candlelit tavern meals are more about the setting than the cooking. Both towns also have a highway strip of chain restaurants built to feed the crowds.

Here Williamsburg is in another league. The restored colonial capital gives you whole streets to explore, with costumed blacksmiths and printers at work, the Capitol, the Governor's Palace, Bruton Parish Church and the Wren Building at the College of William & Mary. Its art museums hold serious collections of American folk and decorative art.

Destin grew out of a fishing village and kept almost nothing old. A small fishing museum, plus the temple mound and the military aircraft collection in Fort Walton Beach, fill an afternoon at most. For real history you have to drive to Pensacola.

Destin is livelier after dark, at least in season. Open-air bars along the harbour boardwalk and on Okaloosa Island fill up on summer evenings, boats raft up at Crab Island for afternoon drinks and a few dance floors stay open late. Most of this fades outside summer and spring break.

Williamsburg goes to bed early. A tavern dinner, a ghost walk or a drink near the college in term time is about all there is, and a proper night out means driving to Norfolk or Richmond.

Destin gives you more to do outside, because the Gulf and the bay are right there. Deep water lies only a short boat ride offshore, so a morning's charter can reach big game fish. The sheltered bay is easy for a first go on a paddleboard or a day under sail, and you can snorkel by the jetties or watch for dolphins in the pass. Ashore, the state parks to the east add tall white dunes and rare coastal dune lakes, with boardwalks and bike paths through them.

Williamsburg's outdoors is gentler and mostly on land. Its flat Tidewater forest and marsh are best seen by bike along the near-empty Colonial Parkway or the paved Capital Trail, or by kayak on the Chickahominy, where ospreys and bald eagles are often seen. It makes a pleasant extra day rather than a reason to come. Neither place has hills, and in both the humid summers leave only the early morning for anything energetic.

Williamsburg has more within reach, and its day trips build on the main visit. Jamestown and Yorktown are each less than half an hour away, the James River plantation houses line Route 5, and Richmond's capitol and museums are about an hour's drive.

From Destin the good outings are fewer. One is the planned pastel towns of Seaside, Rosemary Beach and Alys Beach along 30A. The other is Pensacola, about an hour west, with its colonial district, naval aviation museum and brick forts. Beyond those it is mostly more of the same resort coast.

Both are classic American family vacations, and Williamsburg is slightly ahead because its days mix fun with learning. Busch Gardens and Water Country USA are close to a Historic Area where children can join a fife-and-drum parade or question a blacksmith, and at Jamestown they can climb aboard replica ships.

Destin's family trip is simpler and built around the sand: gentle water on calm days, condos with kitchens, dolphin shows at the marine park, go-karts and pirate-ship cruises. In both places you will drive a lot and need to plan around the summer heat. In Destin, children also need to learn the beach flags.

Both need a car, but Williamsburg is easier on foot once you arrive. The Historic Area, Merchants Square and the campus form a flat district you can cross in about twenty minutes on foot. Duke of Gloucester Street is closed to cars by day, a shuttle loops around the edge and Amtrak trains stop near the centre.

Destin is strung along one congested coastal highway with few safe crossings. Beyond the harbour boardwalk and the bike trail on 30A, almost every trip means driving or ride-hailing.

The two are level here. Both have big outlet centres and nothing in the way of luxury shopping, but what you bring home differs. Destin's shopping is beach retail: the outlet centre near Miramar Beach, swimwear and surf shops, and the more stylish boutiques and galleries of the 30A towns.

Williamsburg's distinctive buys are colonial: pewter, silver, pottery and books printed in the old way, sold in the Historic Area's shops. Next door are the brick-fronted stores of Merchants Square, and out on Richmond Road there is a pottery and homeware store that travellers have stopped at for generations.

Williamsburg is the cheaper stay. Motels and chain hotels are plentiful and reasonably priced outside summer weekends. Admission tickets to the colonial sites and theme parks take the biggest bite, so combination passes are worth a look.

Destin charges resort-coast rates from late spring through summer, and waterfront meals, parking and charter fishing add up. It gets much cheaper from late autumn to early spring, but by then the sea is too cold for most swimmers.

Neither town is somewhere to plan a trip around shows, but Williamsburg has more performance that belongs to the place. There are candlelit eighteenth-century recitals, period theatre and fife-and-drum corps marching down Duke of Gloucester Street, plus college concerts in term time.

Destin's live music is mostly cover bands and acoustic sets on bar decks. It also has summer concerts on the lawns of the 30A towns, and the regional symphony plays across the bay in Niceville.

The two are much the same here. Neither has a spa tradition, so pampering means the resort spas around Sandestin and Miramar Beach in Destin, or the historic inn and the James River golf resorts in Williamsburg. What differs is the kind of calm: early walks on empty white sand in Destin, quiet mornings on the colonial greens and slow drives down the Colonial Parkway in Williamsburg. In both towns it is easiest to find away from the summer crowds.