Guadeloupe or St Croix?

The two islands are evenly matched for beaches, but the experience differs. Guadeloupe gives you more choice. You get white sand and calm lagoons along Grande-Terre's south coast, wilder forest-backed bays on Basse-Terre, and then the beaches of Les Saintes and Marie-Galante on top. Having several coasts also lets you move when sargassum seaweed arrives on one of them.

St Croix has fewer, smaller beaches, but each is distinctive. Sandy Point and Rainbow Beach at the west end are best for long walks and sunsets, Cane Bay for snorkelling from the shore, and Buck Island for a perfect white beach a boat ride away.

Guadeloupe is the better place to eat. Its Creole cooking combines salt-cod accras, colombo curries and court-bouillon of fish. You eat it at beach shacks and at market stalls in Pointe-à-Pitre, and French bakeries and cheese counters fill the gaps. Agricultural rum made from fresh cane juice gives a reason to visit Marie-Galante in its own right.

St Croix's Crucian food is just as rooted in the island: johnny cakes, pates, kallaloo and roti from roadside stands. However, the restaurant scene in Christiansted leans towards mainland American dishes, and the overall range is narrower and more dependent on imports.

Neither island is a culture destination, and both tell the story of sugar and slavery. Guadeloupe's single strongest sight is the Mémorial ACTe on the old sugar wharf in Pointe-à-Pitre. The rest is scattered across the islands: forts, Amerindian rock carvings, Hindu temples and windmills on Marie-Galante.

St Croix's history is more concentrated and easier on the eye. Christiansted's arcaded waterfront and yellow fort are kept as a national historic site, and Frederiksted's fort is where emancipation was proclaimed in 1848.

Neither island has much nightlife, but Guadeloupe has more of it. Le Gosier has bars, a casino and clubs where zouk and dancehall play late at weekends. Carnival, from January to Ash Wednesday, keeps the whole island up for weeks.

St Croix has no club scene at all. Evenings mean rum drinks in Christiansted's open-air courtyard bars, finishing early. Things only stay lively late during the Crucian Christmas Festival.

Guadeloupe has far more to offer outdoors. Basse-Terre is volcanic rainforest, mostly national park, with the steaming 1,467m summit of La Soufrière, waterfalls and the forest road across the island. Below the water, the Cousteau Reserve has turtles and coral, and there are mangroves to kayak in the Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin.

St Croix's landscape is drier and gentler, with cactus hills and sea views around Point Udall. Its strengths are in the sea: the underwater trail at Buck Island, the reef wall at Cane Bay, glowing bioluminescent water in Salt River Bay at night, and nesting leatherback turtles.

This is where the islands differ most. From Guadeloupe, ferries go to Terre-de-Haut's painted village and bay, to Marie-Galante with its windmills and ox carts, and to quiet La Désirade. A longer crossing even reaches Dominica.

St Croix sits about 60km from the other Virgin Islands, so getting off the island means a seaplane or a long boat ride to St Thomas or St John, which makes for an expensive full day. Most visitors simply travel between Christiansted and Frederiksted instead.

Guadeloupe is the easier island with children. The lagoons around Sainte-Anne stay warm and knee-deep a long way out. For outings there are an aquarium, a forest zoo and a botanical garden, and French healthcare is reassuring.

St Croix offers calm water at Rainbow Beach and easy first snorkels, but nothing built for children. For American families, the lack of passports and currency exchange is the main convenience.

On both islands a hire car is close to essential, and buses are of little use. The difference is scale. Guadeloupe takes up to a couple of hours to cross, and traffic at the bridges near Pointe-à-Pitre pushes many visitors to stay on one wing. Ferries and scooters take care of the outer islands.

St Croix is about forty minutes from one end to the other, though you drive on the left on mixed roads. Christiansted's centre is pleasant to explore on foot.

Shopping on Guadeloupe means local produce rather than goods to buy in shops. The covered spice market in Pointe-à-Pitre has vanilla, home-made punches and madras cloth. Rum comes straight from the distilleries, and the French supermarkets on the island give you a bit more to browse.

St Croix's shopping is smaller and focused on jewellery and craft. In the arcaded streets of Christiansted, island jewellers make the Crucian hook bracelet, and galleries sell Caribbean art. Serious duty-free shopping means a trip to St Thomas.

Both islands are expensive because so much is imported, but Guadeloupe is somewhat gentler on the budget. Villas and apartments with kitchens suit families and groups, and bokit vans and lolos are good value.

St Croix costs more than the American mainland for both meals and groceries. Taxis are no cheaper than a hire car, and local food stands and guesthouses in Christiansted only partly offset this.

Guadeloupe's music is woven into everyday life. Gwoka drumming, recognised by UNESCO, comes alive at léwòz evenings, and zouk plays everywhere. L'Artchipel in Basse-Terre town stages theatre and concerts, and Marie-Galante hosts the Terre de Blues festival.

St Croix's quelbe scratch bands and stilt-walking mocko jumbies are mostly seen at festivals. The rest of the year there is only a small arts centre, bar bands and Frederiksted's open-air jazz.

Guadeloupe has something St Croix lacks: volcanic hot springs. You can bathe at the Bains Jaunes in the forest, in the warm shoreline pools near Bouillante and at the small thermal spa at Ravine Chaude.

St Croix offers only resort spas and the odd yoga class. Its appeal is pure quiet, in the villas of the West End and the east-end hills.