Fort Lauderdale or Panama City Beach?

These are two equally strong beaches on different seas. Fort Lauderdale's pale Atlantic sand runs along the A1A promenade, and the sea is warm all year. Lauderdale-by-the-Sea has a reef you can snorkel straight from the shore.

Panama City Beach has 43km of powder-white quartz sand on the shallow, green Gulf. There is quieter swimming in the sheltered lagoon at St. Andrews State Park, and boats run out to the undeveloped sands of Shell Island. The Gulf turns cold in winter, though, and rip currents mean the flags must be watched.

Fort Lauderdale eats better. On top of the dockside grouper and winter stone crab, Las Olas Boulevard has a proper run of restaurants, and the Jamaican, Haitian and Cuban kitchens of the western suburbs reward a drive inland. Miami is close enough for a serious dinner.

Panama City Beach serves good Gulf oysters and blackened grouper at open-air shacks. Beyond that, the choice along Front Beach Road is mostly chains and big themed restaurants.

Neither is a culture destination, but Fort Lauderdale fills a day. There is the Bonnet House estate in its subtropical gardens, the Stranahan House trading post on the New River and the modern collection of the NSU Art Museum. Panama City Beach offers little beyond the Man in the Sea Museum's diving history and the older streets of the St. Andrews district across the bay.

Fort Lauderdale gives you more choice after dark. Himmarshee Street's bars run late, Las Olas has a calmer wine-bar evening, and Wilton Manors is one of the country's best-known gay neighbourhoods, with drag shows along Wilton Drive.

Panama City Beach is about tiki huts, frozen drinks at sunset and a cover band on a deck. Most of the town is quiet by mid-evening, except in March, when spring break turns the strip loud and rowdy.

Both are flat, and both are at their best on the water, but Fort Lauderdale has more range. Its canals and the Intracoastal are made for paddling, there are reefs and sunken wrecks for diving close to shore, and the sawgrass and alligators of the Everglades are less than an hour west.

Panama City Beach offers the tall white dunes and pine flatwoods of St. Andrews State Park and a rare coastal dune lake at Camp Helen. Dolphin-watching trips on St. Andrew Bay are its signature outing.

Fort Lauderdale has the stronger list, and Miami heads it. You can reach Little Havana, Wynwood and the Art Deco district by fast train in under an hour, and Palm Beach's Flagler Museum and Key Largo are within a day's reach.

Panama City Beach's best outings are gentler: the pastel planned towns along Scenic Highway 30A and the old oyster port of Apalachicola. Every one of them needs a car.

Panama City Beach is built around children more thoroughly. The water park, the long-running marine park, the small zoo and the go-kart tracks along Front Beach Road fill a week, and condos with pools are the standard stay. Just avoid March.

Fort Lauderdale has fewer attractions, but the ones it has are good, chiefly the hands-on Museum of Discovery and Science and an Everglades airboat ride. Its gentle winter sea suits families travelling outside summer.

Neither is easy without a car, but Fort Lauderdale lets you manage. If you stay between the beach, Las Olas and the New River, water taxis and free trolleys link the three, and trains run to Miami and the Palm Beaches.

Panama City Beach is one long strip of road with patchy pavements and a slow trolley-bus. You will drive almost everywhere, and in summer the traffic on Front Beach Road can crawl.

Fort Lauderdale has more to browse. Las Olas has palm-shaded boutiques, galleries and resort fashion, and the huge outlet mall out in Sunrise draws bargain hunters from abroad. Panama City Beach offers chain stores at Pier Park and swimwear warehouses with shark-mouth entrances. For anything more individual you have to go to the 30A towns.

Panama City Beach is easier on the wallet, mainly because condos with kitchens let you cook and winter stays are cheap. Meals, attractions and car hire still cost what they do at any American resort.

Fort Lauderdale is dearest exactly when it is most pleasant, in winter. Add tips, beach-bar cocktails and parking near the sand, and it adds up. Its cheaper season is the hot, stormy summer.

Fort Lauderdale has a real stage in the Broward Center on the New River, with touring Broadway musicals, ballet and concerts, and the Parker Playhouse adds to its programme. In Panama City Beach, live performance mostly means cover bands on restaurant decks, with a modest touring season at the restored historic theatre across the bay.

Fort Lauderdale is the more restful choice, though nobody comes for the spas. The big beachfront resorts and the day spas along Las Olas cover massages and treatments, and yoga classes meet on the sand at sunrise. Away from spring weekends, the promenade is good for long, unhurried morning walks.

Panama City Beach has a handful of resort spas and day spas, and only the odd yoga session on the beach. Its calm depends on the season. From autumn to spring the sand empties and sunset walks are easy, though the winter days turn cool. Summer and spring break bring noise and crowds.