Fort Myers or Palm Beach?

These two are broadly level for beaches but very different in character. Fort Myers' sand lies out on the barrier islands: the wide, busy strip of Fort Myers Beach, quieter Lovers Key, and Sanibel and Captiva for dawn shelling. The Gulf water is flat and shallow, though it cools noticeably in winter and algae can sometimes spoil it.

Palm Beach faces the open Atlantic, and the Gulf Stream keeps it clear, blue-green and warm all year. The island's own public stretches are fairly narrow and hemmed in by seawalls and estates, so for broad sand you drive up to Singer Island and Jupiter, or head out to Peanut Island for calm, snorkel-friendly water.

Palm Beach eats better, though neither has a food culture of its own. Fort Myers is casual Gulf seafood, such as grouper sandwiches and peel-and-eat shrimp on waterfront decks, plus a small cluster of River District restaurants and breweries surrounded by highway chains.

Palm Beach offers formal Italian and French dining and long terrace lunches off Worth Avenue, with dress codes to match. Over the bridge, West Palm Beach adds Cuban bakeries, Caribbean takeaways and a weekend green market, which gives it more range than anything around Fort Myers.

Palm Beach has more to see. Fort Myers' one real sight is the Edison and Ford Winter Estates, a good half day among the laboratory and riverside gardens, and after that most visitors run out of sights within a day.

Palm Beach can fill two or three days. It has Flagler's marble Whitehall, Mizner's Mediterranean Revival courtyards on Worth Avenue, the estates along South Ocean Boulevard and, across the lagoon, the Norton Museum's collection of American, European and Chinese art.

Neither is a place for a big night out. The difference is where the life is. In Fort Myers it's the beach bars and sunset crowds around the pier, with a spring-break burst in March. In Palm Beach the island sleeps early, so going out means crossing to Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, which has rooftop bars and a couple of dance spots that fill with a younger crowd at weekends.

The two are closely matched outdoors, but one is about birds and the other is about the sea. Fort Myers is mangrove and cypress country. Ding Darling on Sanibel is a superb place for wading birds, and Corkscrew Swamp has old-growth cypress boardwalks. Paddling the Great Calusa Blueway's mangrove tunnels is the classic outing.

Palm Beach's strength is underwater. Reefs lie close to shore along the Gulf Stream, and the dive site under the Blue Heron Bridge is famous for seahorses and octopus. On land there's the Lake Trail by bike and alligators at the Loxahatchee refuge.

The day trips are fairly even, but they lead in different directions. From Fort Myers you drive to Naples' pier and old town, island villages such as Boca Grande, and the Ringling museum and Ca' d'Zan in Sarasota, which is the best cultural outing. Everything needs a car.

Palm Beach has the bigger single prize. Miami's Art Deco South Beach, Little Havana and Wynwood are about an hour away by fast train. Closer to home, Delray, Boca Raton and Jupiter's lighthouse are pleasant, but they are much alike.

Families do equally well in both, in different ways. Fort Myers is the simpler beach vacation, with shallow Gulf water, shell hunting on Sanibel, dolphin trips and spring-training baseball, but it has no zoo or aquarium. Palm Beach's island feels too formal for children, yet across the bridge there's a zoo with panthers, a science centre with an aquarium, Manatee Lagoon and a drive-through safari park. Peanut Island's shallow lagoon suits small swimmers.

Both need a car, but Palm Beach is easier to manage. Fort Myers is spread across a low-density county with sparse buses, and in winter the bridges to the beaches and Sanibel jam badly.

Palm Beach's core around Worth Avenue is walkable and flat enough to cycle, and downtown West Palm Beach has a free trolley loop. The fast train to Fort Lauderdale and Miami also means one big outing needs no driving at all.

Shopping is one of Palm Beach's real draws, and in Fort Myers it is only a side activity. Fort Myers offers suburban open-air centres, an outlet mall towards Estero, and shell shops and galleries on Sanibel's Periwinkle Way.

Palm Beach has Worth Avenue's luxury houses and jewellers set among palm-shaded vias, consignment shops selling residents' designer cast-offs, and the long run of dealers on Antique Row in West Palm Beach.

Fort Myers is much easier on the wallet. Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach are expensive in winter, but rooms in town or near the interstate are cheap, and the beaches and refuges cost little apart from the hire car and causeway fees.

Palm Beach is among the most expensive resort towns in the country, with island hotels, restaurants and even beach parking priced for the rich. Staying in West Palm Beach and coming in summer are the only real ways to bring costs down.

Both cities have a winter arts season that stops in summer, and Palm Beach's is the fuller one. Fort Myers has touring Broadway shows at the Barbara B. Mann hall, a repertory company in a 1908 theatre and a regional symphony. Palm Beach's Kravis Center adds visiting orchestras, ballet and Palm Beach Opera's short season, along with serious plays from Palm Beach Dramaworks and chamber concerts at the Society of the Four Arts.

Palm Beach is the better place for a pampering stay. Its big oceanfront resorts have large spas with salt-water pools and fitness programmes, beach yoga is easy to find, and the island's quiet, manicured calm does the rest.

Fort Myers offers a slower kind of rest, with low-rise Sanibel, bike paths, a condo pool and early nights. Its spas are modest, mostly a massage at whichever resort you happen to be staying in.