Fort Lauderdale or Marco Island?

Both are true beach destinations, and they differ in kind more than quality. Fort Lauderdale has the Atlantic: a long, lifeguarded strip of pale sand beside the palm-lined A1A promenade, with clear water that stays warm enough for swimming through winter. At Lauderdale-by-the-Sea you can snorkel a reef from the shore.

Marco Island faces the Gulf, so the water is shallow and calm, with no surf. A low tide leaves a broad crescent of sand for shelling and long walks. Tigertail's lagoon and sandbar are made for wading, the wild sand of Keewaydin is a boat ride away, and the sun sets over the water.

Both cities serve Gulf and Atlantic seafood: grouper, stone crab claws in winter and plates eaten on docks by the boats. Fort Lauderdale has more beyond that. Las Olas has a long run of terraces, and the Jamaican, Haitian and Cuban neighbourhoods inland bring oxtail, patties and bakery counters that Marco cannot match.

On Marco Island the range narrows to waterfront grills, resort dining rooms, a few steakhouses and the fish shacks of Goodland. For a more ambitious dinner you drive to Naples, just as Fort Lauderdale's keen eaters head to Miami.

Neither is a place for sightseeing, but Fort Lauderdale gives a curious visitor a good day out. The Bonnet House estate in its subtropical gardens, the pioneer Stranahan House on the New River and the modern collection at the NSU Art Museum make a short but real list. Marco Island has one main stop, the historical museum, which tells the story of the Calusa people and the carved wooden figures dug up on the island. For anything more you have to go to Naples.

Here the two are furthest apart. Fort Lauderdale has beach bars on A1A that fill from late afternoon, late-running bars and lounges on Himmarshee Street, wine bars on Las Olas and, above all, Wilton Manors, whose strip along Wilton Drive is one of the country's best-known gay nightlife scenes.

Marco Island has sunset drinks, a late dinner and a quiet resort lounge, and then it is bedtime. Its liveliest moments are winter weekend afternoons at the dockside bars of Goodland, which are over long before Fort Lauderdale gets going.

Marco Island is the better base for wildlife. It sits on the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands, where you can kayak mangrove channels, watch dolphins from a boat, spot manatees in the canals and fish inshore for some of Florida's best snook and tarpon. Rookery Bay, Big Cypress, the Fakahatchee Strand and Everglades National Park are all within an hour.

Fort Lauderdale's outdoors is more about boats and the sea. You can paddle its canals, dive the offshore reefs and sunken wrecks or go sport fishing for sailfish. It also has the coastal hammock of Hugh Taylor Birch State Park and airboat rides at the eastern edge of the Everglades.

Fort Lauderdale has the stronger excursions because Miami is so close. Art Deco Miami Beach, the murals of Wynwood and Little Havana are under an hour away by car or train. Palm Beach's Flagler Museum is to the north, and Key Largo makes a long day.

Marco Island's outings are gentler: Naples' pier and old streets, the old trading post at Chokoloskee, the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers and the shell beaches of Sanibel. The best of them lead into the swamps and estuaries rather than into towns.

Fort Lauderdale is the easier choice for a family trip. Its lifeguarded beach has showers and parks behind it, and the Museum of Discovery and Science, a butterfly aviary and Everglades airboat rides fill the days off the sand.

Marco Island's Gulf is shallower and calmer, which is a real plus with toddlers, and resort children's programmes, wading at Tigertail and dolphin trips keep children happy. Its zoo and children's museum are in Naples, though, so most outings start with a drive.

Both assume a car, but Fort Lauderdale lets you go without one if you stay between the beach, Las Olas and downtown. Water taxis on the canals and free trolleys link that area, and trains run to Miami and the Palm Beaches.

On Marco Island you can cycle between beach, shops and restaurants in the cooler months, and that is about it. The bus to Naples is limited, the airport is a drive away, and the Everglades and everything else off the island need a car.

Fort Lauderdale has more to offer shoppers. Las Olas Boulevard is good for a shaded afternoon of boutiques and swimwear. Out west in Sunrise is one of the country's largest outlet malls, which draws bargain hunters from abroad, and there is a long-running flea market too.

Marco Island has a few plazas of resort wear, shell souvenirs and coastal décor. For real browsing you go to Naples, to the boutiques and galleries on Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South.

Neither is cheap, and both cost most from January to April and least in the stormy summer. Fort Lauderdale gives you more ways to save. Older motels and apartments a few blocks back from the sand bring the cost down, and staying near Las Olas means you may not need a hire car.

Marco Island's prices are set for a well-off winter crowd, cheap food is hard to find and a car is unavoidable. Weekly condo rentals with a kitchen are the main way to cut costs, and they work best for families and groups.

Fort Lauderdale has a proper venue in the Broward Center on the New River, with touring Broadway musicals, ballet and comedy all year. The Parker Playhouse and a few rock and indie stages add to the programme. Marco Island has a community theatre and guitarists in the resort bars in season. Its nearest real concert hall is in Naples, home to a philharmonic orchestra, but that means a drive and mostly comes alive only in winter.

Neither has thermal baths or any bathing tradition, so in both places wellness means spas, yoga and an unhurried pace. Fort Lauderdale's version is spread around town. There are day spas along Las Olas, spas in the beachfront resorts and yoga classes on the sand at sunrise, all good but much like any American beach resort. Its slower side is a long morning walk on the promenade and an afternoon by the water. That suits a few calm days fitted around everything else the city offers.

Marco Island does more with less. Massages, treatments and pools come as part of a resort stay rather than as an outing, and the island's plazas add yoga classes and day spas. With little to pull you away, it is easier to spend a whole week on shelling walks, spa afternoons and early nights, so Marco is the better choice if rest is the point of the trip.