Guadeloupe or St John?

Both have warm, swimmable sea all year, but St John's beaches are the more consistently superb. Its north shore runs bay after bay of white sand inside the national park, from Hawksnest and Trunk Bay with its snorkel trail to Maho and Francis. The water is clear and sheltered, and almost nothing is built behind the sand.

Guadeloupe has more variety and more ground to cover. There are calm lagoons along Grande-Terre's south coast from Le Gosier to Saint-François, wilder, darker sand on Basse-Terre, and the bays of Les Saintes and Marie-Galante. The catch is sargassum on some east- and south-facing shores in certain months, so it pays to be able to switch coasts.

Guadeloupe is much the better place to eat. Its Creole kitchen has a real identity, from accras and colombo curries to the bokit vans. The markets of Pointe-à-Pitre and the rum distilleries of Marie-Galante make food part of the sightseeing.

On St John, meals centre on Cruz Bay's open-air restaurants and beach bars, with a few West Indian kitchens for johnnycakes and stewed goat. Almost everything arrives by ship and there are no real markets, so many villa guests end up cooking for themselves.

Neither is a culture trip, but Guadeloupe gives you more to see. The Mémorial ACTe in Pointe-à-Pitre treats the history of slavery with real weight. Forts, Hindu temples, Amerindian rock carvings and the sugar estates of Marie-Galante add a layer, though it is spread across the islands.

St John's history is told mainly through ruins along its trails: the Annaberg sugar mill, the Taíno petroglyphs on the Reef Bay Trail and the fort above Coral Bay where the 1733 revolt began. There is no museum of note, so a morning or two covers it.

Guadeloupe has the livelier evenings. Le Gosier has bars, a casino and weekend clubs playing zouk and dancehall, and the waterfronts in Sainte-Anne and Saint-François stay busy until around midnight. Carnival, from January to Ash Wednesday, keeps the whole island up late.

St John has no clubs at all. A few open-air bars on the Cruz Bay waterfront and in Coral Bay serve rum drinks into the late evening, and anyone after more takes the ferry to St Thomas.

Guadeloupe has the bigger landscape. Basse-Terre's rainforest national park climbs to the steaming summit of La Soufrière at 1,467m, with the Carbet falls and the Route de la Traversée on the way. Offshore, the Cousteau Reserve and the mangroves of the Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin cover the water.

St John is smaller in scale and gentler: dry forest and headlands inside Virgin Islands National Park, short hikes such as Ram Head and the Reef Bay Trail, and reefs at Waterlemon Cay full of turtles and rays. It is excellent for snorkelling and paddling, less so for a demanding hike.

On both islands the good days out involve a boat, and Guadeloupe has more of them. Ferries reach the painted village and bay of Terre-de-Haut in Les Saintes, the windmills and distilleries of Marie-Galante, quiet La Désirade and even Dominica. On the main island, towns such as Deshaies can fill an afternoon.

From St John, St Thomas is twenty minutes away, and charter boats run to the British Virgin Islands, with Jost Van Dyke and The Baths on Virgin Gorda the highlights. Ferries are infrequent, and crossing to the British side means a passport and customs.

Guadeloupe is the easier family base. The knee-deep lagoons at Sainte-Anne suit small children. When they tire of the beach there is the aquarium at Le Gosier, the zoo at Parc des Mamelles and the botanical garden at Deshaies, with French healthcare behind it all.

St John works for children who are happy in the water, with turtles at Maho Bay and the gentle snorkel trail at Trunk Bay. Beyond that there is little for them, few lifeguards, and a flight, a taxi and a ferry just to arrive.

Both need a car, and neither is easy without one. Guadeloupe is the simpler of the two: you fly straight in and drive on good French-style roads. Distances are longer, though, and traffic around Pointe-à-Pitre and the bridges between the two wings can be slow, so many visitors stay on one side.

St John is small but awkward. With no airport, you arrive by ferry from St Thomas, then drive steep switchbacks on the left, usually in a hired jeep. Safari taxis to the north shore beaches and a walkable Cruz Bay help those staying nearby.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Guadeloupe offers a little more. Pointe-à-Pitre's covered spice market sells vanilla, punches and madras cloth, the distilleries sell rum at source, and French chains and malls cover practical needs. On St John, shopping means an hour among the galleries, jewellers and resortwear boutiques in the Cruz Bay courtyards, with the duty-free streets of Charlotte Amalie a ferry ride away.

Neither is cheap, but St John is markedly the more expensive. Guadeloupe's prices track mainland France or a little above. Villas, apartments and guesthouses with kitchens, along with bokit vans and lolos, keep a stay in check, though a hire car is a fixed cost.

On St John, high villa and resort rates, restaurant prices driven up by shipping, jeep hire, ferries and taxis all add up fast. The free national park beaches and trails and the Cinnamon Bay campground are the main ways to soften the cost.

Guadeloupe has a living music culture. Gwoka drumming, recognised by UNESCO, fills léwòz evenings, zouk plays everywhere, and carnival groups parade with drums and conch shells for weeks. L'Artchipel in Basse-Terre town and the Terre de Blues festival on Marie-Galante add formal stages.

St John has no theatre or concert hall. Live music means a singer-guitarist or a steel pan band at a Cruz Bay bar, and the St John Festival in early summer, with calypso and quelbe, is the one big occasion.

Guadeloupe has the edge, thanks to its volcano. Hot springs at the Bains Jaunes on the way up La Soufrière, shoreline pools near Bouillante and the small thermal spa at Ravine Chaude give it a real bathing tradition. Deshaies and Les Saintes are made for slowing down.

St John offers calm rather than treatments. It has no springs, little traffic, quiet nights broken only by tree frogs, and hillside villas looking over the water. Massage therapists who come to the villas and a few yoga studios make up the rest.