Fort Lauderdale or Gulf Shores?

Both towns live by their beaches, and the difference lies mostly in the water and the sand. Fort Lauderdale has the Atlantic, warm enough to swim in every month, a palm-lined promenade along A1A, and a reef off Lauderdale-by-the-Sea that you can snorkel from the shore.

Gulf Shores has finer, whiter quartz sand, low dunes in Gulf State Park and towards Fort Morgan, and a clear green Gulf at its best in summer. Its swimming season ends in October, though, and because of rip currents you need to watch the flags more carefully than on the lifeguarded strand in Fort Lauderdale.

Neither is a food destination, but Fort Lauderdale gives you more choice. Besides the seafood on the waterfront, it has the restaurant terraces of Las Olas and a local habit of brunch. Inland there is Jamaican, Haitian and Cuban cooking across Broward, and Miami is near enough for a serious dinner.

Gulf Shores sticks to Gulf seafood eaten casually: Royal Red shrimp, oysters and gumbo with a Louisiana accent, served at open-air shacks. It is good of its kind but has little range beyond it, and buying shrimp at a seafood market to cook in the condo is part of the fun.

Neither will fill a week, but Fort Lauderdale has enough for a day: the Bonnet House and its gardens, the Stranahan House on the New River, the NSU Art Museum and the Riverwalk. Gulf Shores has really only one sight, the brick star fort at Fort Morgan, which played its part in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864 and takes about a morning. For anything more, visitors to Fort Lauderdale go to Miami and visitors to Gulf Shores go inland or along the coast.

Fort Lauderdale has the more varied evenings. There are beach bars on A1A, bars on Himmarshee Street that stay open late, and wine bars on Las Olas. Then there is Wilton Manors, one of the country's best-known gay neighbourhoods, with drag shows along Wilton Drive.

In Gulf Shores you go out in flip-flops to open-air beach decks. The legendary roadhouse on the state line stays loud late, and spring break brings a younger crowd. Most of the resort goes to bed early, and neither town has much of a club scene.

Both are flat and watery, but Fort Lauderdale's outdoors goes further. Its canals and the Intracoastal suit paddling and boat trips, offshore reefs and deliberately sunk wrecks give real diving close to shore, and the Everglades, with airboats and alligators, are under an hour away.

Gulf Shores is quieter and greener on land. The paved trails of Gulf State Park are better for cycling, Bon Secour has walks among dunes and lakes, and the peninsula draws migrating birds in spring and autumn. Dolphin cruises and the river swamp of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta add to that.

Fort Lauderdale has the bigger name on its doorstep. Miami, with the Art Deco district of Miami Beach, Wynwood and Little Havana, is under an hour away by car or train, and Palm Beach and the top of the Keys are also within reach.

Gulf Shores offers smaller, gentler outings: Mobile with its ironwork balconies and battleship, bayside Fairhope, the historic district of Pensacola and the ferry to Dauphin Island. All of these need a car, whereas you can reach Miami by rail.

Gulf Shores is the resort more fully built around families. Condos with kitchens and pools are the usual stay. For rainy or very hot afternoons there is a water park, a small zoo, a Ferris wheel at Orange Beach and a theme park in Foley, all a short drive apart.

Fort Lauderdale has the better children's museum in the Museum of Discovery and Science, calmer water to swim in and Everglades airboat rides, but fewer attractions made for children. At Gulf Shores the rip currents mean closer watching in the surf.

Fort Lauderdale is the easier of the two to get around, provided you stay between the beach, Las Olas and downtown. That triangle is pleasant on foot and linked by free trolleys and water taxis on the canals, and trains run from downtown to Miami and the Palm Beaches. For the Everglades or the western suburbs you will still want a car or ride-hailing.

Gulf Shores is strung out for miles along a single beach road with almost no public transport, so driving is the only real plan. You can walk only within your own stretch of beach, bikes are useful mainly inside Gulf State Park, and traffic over the bridges builds up on summer weekends.

Fort Lauderdale is the better place to shop, though not a great one. Las Olas Boulevard makes a pleasant afternoon of boutiques, galleries and resort fashion, and the huge outlet mall at Sunrise draws shoppers from Latin America and Europe. Gulf Shores mostly sells beachwear, souvenirs and fishing gear along the beach road, and its outlet mall in Foley is something to do on a rainy day rather than a reason to come.

Gulf Shores is the easier of the two on the wallet. A condo kitchen keeps meals cheap, and from autumn to spring rentals fall sharply in price, which is why long winter stays are common there.

Fort Lauderdale is most expensive exactly when its weather is best, in the winter high season, and restaurant menus with tax and tip, beach-bar cocktails and parking all add up. Its cheaper months are the hot, stormy summer, and apartments a few blocks back from the sand help keep costs down.

Fort Lauderdale has a proper stage in the Broward Center on the New River, with touring Broadway musicals, ballet, comedy and concerts, the smaller Parker Playhouse alongside, and a few downtown venues for touring bands. Classical music and opera are a thin part of the programme, though, and for a fuller evening of either most people go to Miami's arts centre.

Gulf Shores has no theatre at all, and its music happens outdoors. Singer-songwriters play daily on beach-bar stages, the state-line roadhouse holds a long-running songwriters' festival every November, and the Orange Beach amphitheatre brings touring country and rock acts in the warmer months. For a symphony or a play, Mobile is about an hour away.

For a restful stay, Fort Lauderdale gives you more choice: the spas of the big beachfront resorts, day spas along Las Olas and sunrise yoga on the sand. Its warm, dry winter suits slow mornings on the promenade.

Gulf Shores has only a handful of spas, and its calm comes instead from early nights and sunsets from a condo balcony, best enjoyed away from the busy summer weekends. There is no bathing tradition in either town, so the difference is one of degree.