Fort Myers or St. Augustine?

Fort Myers has the better beaches for swimming, though they take more effort to reach. Estero Island, Lovers Key, Bonita Beach and the shelling shores of Sanibel and Captiva are half an hour or more from town, but the Gulf there is shallow, calm and gentle enough for children and weak swimmers, and it stays swimmable through much of the winter.

St. Augustine's sand on Anastasia Island is just as wide and pale and only ten to fifteen minutes from the old town, which makes it easy to mix sightseeing with a swim. The Atlantic is livelier and greener, though, and in winter it becomes a place to walk rather than swim.

Both towns eat seafood in casual places by the water and neither has much range. Fort Myers leans on Gulf staples like grouper sandwiches, peel-and-eat shrimp and stone crab claws, with a few independent restaurants and breweries downtown and a lot of chain dining along the highways.

St. Augustine has something Fort Myers lacks, a local flavour of its own: the Minorcan datil pepper in hot sauces, spicy clam chowder and pilau. The trade-off is that the restaurants along St. George Street lean heavily on passing tourists.

This is the widest gap between the two. Fort Myers has one sight that is worth the trip, the Edison and Ford Winter Estates with their laboratory and riverside gardens, plus a few streets of old brick buildings downtown. Most visitors have seen it all in a day.

St. Augustine has more than four centuries of history in a compact centre. The coquina-walled Castillo de San Marcos, the balconied lanes of the Spanish quarter, Flagler's Ponce de Leon Hotel with its Tiffany glass and the Lightner Museum give it layers of history that no other town in Florida has, and Fort Matanzas and the lighthouse add more just outside town.

Evenings are quiet in both, with no real club scene and most bars closing well before the small hours. What differs is the layout. Fort Myers splits its nightlife between the pubs and rooftop bars of the River District and the beach bars around the pier on Estero Island, which fill up in March, so a night out usually means a drive or a taxi.

St. Augustine keeps its taverns and courtyard bars together in the old town, close enough to walk between, with Flagler College students adding some life in term time.

Fort Myers is the better choice for wildlife. Ding Darling refuge on Sanibel is one of the best places in the country for roseate spoonbills and herons, Corkscrew Swamp has old-growth bald cypress, and the mangrove tunnels of the Great Calusa Blueway make for excellent paddling. Manatees gather near the Orange River in winter.

St. Augustine's salt marsh, dunes and maritime forest are pleasant rather than exceptional. Anastasia State Park and the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve are good for a walk, a paddle or birding, and the coastal road south is good for cycling.

Both need a car for every outing, and the lists are about equally useful. From Fort Myers the trips are mostly along the Gulf: polished Naples, the island villages of Sanibel, Captiva and Boca Grande, the Ringling museum in Sarasota and Everglades City at the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands.

From St. Augustine the options are more varied: Jacksonville's museums, Victorian Fernandina Beach, the Daytona speedway and Kennedy Space Center. Orlando's parks are also an hour closer than they are from Fort Myers.

A family trip to Fort Myers is spent on the sand and the water, while St. Augustine fills its days with forts, alligators and lighthouses. In Fort Myers that means shallow, calm Gulf water, shell hunting on Sanibel, dolphin boats and gentle kayaking. There is no zoo or aquarium, though, and every outing starts in the car.

St. Augustine offers the Alligator Farm with its zipline, cannon firing at the fort, the lighthouse climb and pirate museums, all in a compact centre that is safe to walk. Its beaches suit children mainly in summer, because the sea is cold in winter.

St. Augustine is much easier without driving all the time. The fort, St. George Street, Flagler College and the bayfront are minutes apart on foot, sightseeing trolleys loop past the main sights, and most visitors park once and walk. You will still need wheels for the beaches.

In Fort Myers a car is essential from day one. The town, the beaches, Sanibel and the reserves are spread across a wide county, the buses are too sparse to rely on, and the bridges to the islands back up badly in the winter season.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Fort Myers has a little more to offer. The outlet mall and large open-air centres towards Estero cover mainstream brands well, and Periwinkle Way on Sanibel adds galleries and shell shops.

St. Augustine's shopping is more of a stroll than an errand. St. George Street is mostly fudge and pirate souvenirs, but the galleries and antique dealers around Aviles Street and the datil-pepper sauces make better gifts than anything typical of Fort Myers.

The two charge extra for different things. In Fort Myers you pay for being near the beach. Rooms on Estero Island, and above all on Sanibel, are the dearest from January to April, and summer rates fall sharply. Staying in town or near the interstate saves money, but a rental car, beach parking and the causeway fee are extras you cannot avoid.

In St. Augustine you pay for being near the old town. Historic inns and B&Bs within walking distance of it become much dearer at weekends and in the spring and summer peaks. Midweek stays and motels by the highway or on the island cost less, and the old streets and public beaches are free.

The two are about equal for evenings out, but they offer different kinds of shows. Fort Myers has a proper indoor winter season, with touring Broadway musicals at the Barbara B. Mann hall, a repertory company in a restored 1908 theatre and a regional symphony, but it largely stops in summer.

St. Augustine's main stage is the open-air Amphitheatre in the woods on Anastasia Island, which books rock, country and folk acts through much of the year. For opera or serious theatre you have to go to Jacksonville.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and spas are mostly rooms inside hotels. Fort Myers is slightly better for doing nothing, thanks to the low-rise calm of Sanibel and Captiva, resort pools and long shoreline walks. In St. Augustine, relaxing means a B&B veranda, a courtyard garden and an evening walk along the bayfront seawall, and it is best midweek.