Fort Lauderdale or Pensacola?

Both are serious beach destinations, and the difference is in the kind of beach and the season. Fort Lauderdale's wide pale strand sits right in town beside the A1A promenade, has lifeguards along it and is swimmable all year. At Lauderdale-by-the-Sea you can snorkel over a reef straight from the shore.

Pensacola's beaches lie twenty minutes across the bay. They are whiter, quieter and wilder: quartz sand, dunes and green water inside a national seashore, with calm shallows on the sound side. They are only for swimming in the warm half of the year, and rip currents on rough days call for care.

Neither is a city you would choose for its food, but the flavours are different. Fort Lauderdale's best eating has a Caribbean and Latin side: Jamaican and Haitian cooking in the western suburbs, Cuban bakeries, and stone crab claws on a dock along the Intracoastal. Miami is close if you want a serious dinner.

Pensacola stays with the Gulf and the South. Expect raw and chargrilled oysters, royal red shrimp and Creole-tinged gumbo by the bay, and modern Southern restaurants and craft breweries along Palafox Street.

Pensacola has much more history to show for itself. Spanish, French, British, Confederate and American rule have left the Seville district, Plaza Ferdinand and the brick Fort Pickens. The National Naval Aviation Museum alone fills most of a day, and the essentials take two or three days in all.

Fort Lauderdale is a younger city with a short list: the eccentric Bonnet House, the Stranahan trading post and the NSU Art Museum. Together they make a pleasant day, and after that the waterways are the main attraction.

Fort Lauderdale has the busier evenings. The beach bars on A1A fill up from late afternoon, Himmarshee Street keeps a young crowd out late, and Wilton Drive in Wilton Manors is one of the country's best-known gay strips, with drag shows. If you want clubs, Miami is a short trip away.

Pensacola's nights centre on Palafox Street and the old Seville Quarter, with taprooms and rooftop bars full of locals and Navy personnel, plus the sand-floored bars on the island. Outside summer weekends it goes quiet early.

Both are flat and the outdoors is mostly on the water, so the choice comes down to what you want to do. Fort Lauderdale is about canals: kayaking past waterfront mansions, wreck diving close to shore, sport fishing for sailfish, and the Everglades less than an hour west for airboats and alligators.

Pensacola is wilder on its own doorstep. You can cycle and walk the boardwalks through the national seashore's dunes and salt marsh, watch dolphins in the sound, dive the sunken aircraft carrier, and canoe the clear Blackwater River inland.

Fort Lauderdale has the stronger day trips because Miami is so close. Miami Beach's Art Deco district, Wynwood and Little Havana are under an hour away by car or fast train, Palm Beach's Flagler Museum lies north, and Key Largo is within a long day.

From Pensacola the best outing is Mobile, an hour west, for its antebellum streets and battleship. Fairhope and Fort Morgan lie across the bay. Eastwards there are mostly more beach towns, such as Destin and Seaside, and every trip needs a car.

Both work well for a beach vacation with children, and neither has theme parks close by. Fort Lauderdale adds a good hands-on science museum with an aquarium, Everglades airboat rides and a butterfly garden, and its sea is warm enough for children all year.

Pensacola's strengths are the shallow sound-side water for toddlers, condos with kitchens, and plenty for plane-mad children at the aviation museum and the Blue Angels base. Fort Pickens' tunnels and the lighthouse climb fill the other days.

Both are car cities, but Fort Lauderdale makes it easier to go without one. The beach, Las Olas and downtown are linked by canal water taxis and free trolleys, and fast trains run to Miami and the Palm Beaches.

In Pensacola only Palafox Street and the historic district can be walked. The beach is across the bridges, the naval air station and Perdido Key are further out, and buses are no real help to a visitor.

Fort Lauderdale is clearly better for shopping. Las Olas Boulevard is a shaded street of boutiques, galleries and swimwear shops, and the outlet mall in Sunrise is one of the largest in the country, a real draw for bargain hunters. There is a long-running flea market as well.

Pensacola has a few independent and antique shops on Palafox Street, local crafts at the Saturday market and an ordinary regional mall.

Pensacola is the more affordable of the two, though neither is cheap. Rooms in town and inland cost noticeably less than on the island, the seafood is casual, and the aviation museum is free. Its bargains come in winter, when the beach empties.

Fort Lauderdale is at its priciest in that same winter season, and tips, tax, beach-bar drinks and paid parking push costs up further. Its cheaper months are the hot, stormy summer.

Fort Lauderdale has a little more to see on stage. The Broward Center on the New River brings in touring Broadway musicals, ballet and concerts, a few downtown venues host touring bands, and Miami's larger arts centre is within an hour.

Pensacola has a lively stage for its size. The restored 1925 Saenger Theatre is home to the local symphony, opera and ballet, but everything is on a regional scale.

Neither has a bathing culture, but Fort Lauderdale does relaxation better. It has the spas of the big beachfront resorts, day spas along Las Olas and sunrise yoga on the sand, and its warm, dry winters are ideal for slow mornings on the promenade.

Pensacola has hotel day spas and massage studios in town. Its main asset is calm: outside the summer peak, the island and the quiet condo stretches of Perdido Key are easy places to switch off.