Fort Myers or Myrtle Beach?

Fort Myers has fine pale sand and a calm, shallow Gulf, but its beaches lie on the barrier islands, half an hour or more from town. Fort Myers Beach on Estero Island is the busy strip, Lovers Key and Bonita Beach are quieter, and Sanibel and Captiva are known for shelling along the tideline. The Gulf stays swimmable on sunny winter days, though seaweed and algae blooms sometimes spoil the water for a spell.

Myrtle Beach is the more complete beach destination. The Grand Strand runs for about 100km, with the sand right in front of the oceanfront hotels. You can stay among the crowded boardwalk blocks or drive a short way south to the calmer, dune-backed beaches at Surfside and Garden City. The Atlantic there is greenish rather than clear and too cold from November to April, but in summer it is warm and gentle, with no shortage of sand.

Neither is a food destination, and both work best when you keep to simple seafood. Fort Myers means grouper sandwiches, stone crab and sunset decks over the water, with a few independent kitchens and breweries in the River District. Myrtle Beach leans towards all-you-can-eat buffets on the strip, but Murrells Inlet's dock-to-table shrimp and oysters and the Lowcountry shrimp and grits give it a regional flavour of its own.

Fort Myers has a little more to see. The Edison and Ford Winter Estates, with their laboratory and riverside gardens, make a real half day, and the brick streets of the River District and the royal palms of McGregor Boulevard give the town some sense of its past.

Myrtle Beach is a twentieth-century resort with almost no history on view. Its best cultural outing is out of town at Brookgreen Gardens, a sculpture garden on a former rice plantation, with the Moorish Atalaya house next door. In both places a single day covers the sights.

Myrtle Beach has the livelier evenings. In summer the boardwalk blocks and the big entertainment complexes fill with beach bars, rooftop decks and dance clubs that stay open late, and North Myrtle Beach keeps its shag dancing tradition alive. It is loud and casual, and rowdy during rally and spring break weeks.

Fort Myers winds down early. A few cocktail bars and pubs downtown, the monthly art walk and the sunset crowd around the pier on Fort Myers Beach make for pleasant evenings out, but the crowd is older and there are few clubs.

Fort Myers is clearly the better place for wildlife. Ding Darling on Sanibel is a major refuge for spoonbills, herons and ibis, Corkscrew Swamp has a long boardwalk through old bald cypress, and the mangrove tunnels of the Great Calusa Blueway make paddling the main activity. Manatees in winter add to it.

Myrtle Beach has a gentler version of the same coastal plain: marsh boardwalks and alligators at Huntington Beach State Park, and kayaking in the Waccamaw River's blackwater swamps. Its real outdoor draw is golf, with dozens of courses along the Strand.

Both offer a good range of outings, and both need a car for every one of them. From Fort Myers the trips lean towards islands and art: polished Naples, Sanibel and Boca Grande, the Ringling museum in Sarasota and the wild Ten Thousand Islands near Everglades City.

Myrtle Beach's outings are more about history. Charleston, with its antebellum streets and harbour forts, is a long but rewarding day, and closer to home Georgetown's rice-culture museum and Wilmington's riverfront show the older Carolina coast.

Myrtle Beach was built for family vacations and it shows. Resort pools with lazy rivers, a large aquarium, a seaside amusement park, water parks, the observation wheel and pirate-themed mini-golf mean there is always another outing, and spring break weeks are the main thing to avoid.

Fort Myers suits younger children who are happy with simpler things: shell hunting on Sanibel, spotting dolphins and manatees, a gentle kayak trip. With no theme park, zoo or aquarium nearby, rainy days fall back on the science centre and the Shell Factory.

Both need a car, and neither has buses worth relying on. In Fort Myers the problem is distance and bridges. The beaches and Sanibel sit across causeways that back up in the winter season, and only the walkable River District and the trolley along Fort Myers Beach let you leave the car behind.

Myrtle Beach is a long, narrow strip of multi-lane highway with few pavements, and summer traffic on Kings Highway is slow. Around the boardwalk, though, the beach makes a long, flat walk, and some visitors get around the nearby streets by bicycle or golf cart.

This is a draw: both offer American outlet malls and little else of note. Fort Myers adds browsing on Sanibel's Periwinkle Way, with galleries and shell shops, while Myrtle Beach has its giant beachwear stores, the town-centre feel of The Market Common and sweetgrass baskets sold along the coast road to the south.

Myrtle Beach is the cheaper of the two. Its huge stock of motels, towers and condos with kitchens keeps rooms affordable outside the July peak, and cooking for yourself cuts food costs further.

Fort Myers is more expensive in its winter high season, when beachfront rooms on Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach book up early. Staying inland or coming in summer brings costs down, but causeway and beach parking fees add up.

Fort Myers has a little more substance. Its winter season brings touring Broadway shows to the Barbara B. Mann hall, repertory theatre in a restored 1908 building and a regional symphony, though almost everything stops in summer. Myrtle Beach goes for polished entertainment instead: country and gospel revues, Christmas shows and dinner shows with knights and pirates, with no orchestra or serious drama.

Neither has a bathing or spa tradition, but Fort Myers is the more restful place. Sanibel and Captiva are built low, with bike paths and early nights, and the quiet condo and pool routine comes naturally there.

In summer Myrtle Beach's main strip is noisy and car-bound, so rest means resort spas, the calmer southern end around Pawleys Island, or a visit in spring or autumn.