Gulf Shores or Marco Island?

Both have fine pale sand on the Gulf, but the water behaves differently. Gulf Shores runs for miles from Fort Morgan to the Florida line, with low dunes in Gulf State Park, real surf and rip currents that make the warning flags worth watching.

Marco Island's crescent is shallow and calm, with shelling at low tide and the lagoon and sandbar at Tigertail for wading. It also has the undeveloped barrier beach of Keewaydin a short boat ride away, and its sea stays warmer through the winter.

Neither is a food destination, and both rely on Gulf seafood eaten with a view. Gulf Shores leans towards Louisiana, with gumbo, Royal Red shrimp and big beach-bar restaurants, and many visitors buy shrimp at the seafood markets to cook in their condo.

Marco Island has stone crab claws in the cooler months, dockside fish platters in Goodland and pricier resort dining rooms. For a more ambitious dinner, Naples is half an hour away and has a much larger, more polished restaurant scene.

There is little culture in either place, and each has one stop that is worth a morning. In Gulf Shores it is Fort Morgan, the brick star fort that fought in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. On Marco it is the historical museum, which tells the story of the Calusa and the carved wooden figures found here in the 1890s. For anything more, Gulf Shores visitors go to Mobile or Pensacola, and Marco visitors go to Naples.

Gulf Shores has the livelier evenings, though only by beach-resort standards. Its open-air bar decks stay busy late in summer, spring break brings a younger crowd, and the state-line roadhouse at Perdido Key stays loud well into the night.

Marco Island winds down after sunset drinks and dinner. It has resort lounges, a few bars by the marinas and the dockside bars in Goodland, which are busiest on winter weekend afternoons. Nothing runs late, and neither place has clubs.

Both are flat, watery coasts, but Marco Island is on the edge of something far larger. The mangrove channels of the Ten Thousand Islands, manatees, dolphins, the estuaries of Rookery Bay and excellent inshore fishing are all on the doorstep. Everglades National Park and Big Cypress are within an hour.

The outdoors around Gulf Shores is gentler. It has the paved trails of Gulf State Park for cycling, dune and lake walks at Bon Secour, migrating birds in spring and autumn, and deep-sea fishing from Orange Beach. Its one area of true wilderness is the Mobile-Tensaw Delta, which lies farther inland.

Gulf Shores has more towns within reach. Mobile with its ironwork balconies and the USS Alabama, bayside Fairhope, and Pensacola with its historic district and naval aviation museum all lie within about an hour. The car ferry to Dauphin Island makes a pleasant extra.

Marco Island has fewer places to choose from: Naples for its pier and galleries, the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, and the old trading post at Chokoloskee near Everglades City. Its best outings are into the swamps rather than to towns.

Gulf Shores is built for families. Condos with pools are the standard place to stay, and the state park adds a nature centre, bike trails and a long fishing pier. The catch is the surf and its rip currents, so children need close watching.

Marco Island is easier in the water. It is shallow and calm, which suits small children who mostly want to wade and look for shells. Apart from the resort kids' programmes, though, there is little on the island built for children, and older ones will want the Naples zoo or an airboat ride.

You need a car in both, and the difference is one of scale. Gulf Shores stretches for miles along a single beach road, with most attractions out on inland highways, and traffic over the bridges gets heavy on summer weekends. Marco Island is small and flat, with cycle paths along its main roads, so in the cooler months a bike gets you to the beach, the shops and dinner, though Naples and the Everglades still mean driving.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Marco Island has better shops within reach. Naples, half an hour away, has the upmarket boutiques and galleries of Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South as well as open-air malls, and the island's own plazas add galleries and coastal décor.

In Gulf Shores you will find beachwear stores, fishing shops and the large outlet mall in Foley. That is fine for bargains on a rainy day, but there is nothing in the way of luxury or design.

Gulf Shores is the cheaper of the two, a mid-range American beach resort where free beaches and park trails keep days inexpensive. Marco Island is expensive, above all from January to April, when its best weather draws a well-off winter crowd, and eating out costs a lot all year.

The two are expensive at opposite times of year. Gulf Shores is dearest in June and July and Marco in winter, and each is cheapest when its weather is at its least appealing.

Live performance in both places is informal. There is no professional theatre or classical scene in either, so the difference is in the kind of music. Gulf Shores has bands and singer-songwriters on beach-bar stages every day, a songwriters' festival each November at the state-line roadhouse that has run for decades, and touring country and rock acts at the Orange Beach amphitheatre in the warmer months.

Marco Island is quieter, with a small community theatre and guitarists or bands in the resort bars during the winter season. What it has close by is Naples, half an hour away, where the performing arts centre is home to the philharmonic orchestra and also hosts touring shows. From Gulf Shores, the nearest symphony is in Mobile, about an hour's drive.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so this comes down to spas and pace. Marco Island does better on both, with full-service spas at the big beachfront resorts, yoga classes in the plazas and an island that is quiet by nature.

Gulf Shores has only a few resort and day spas. Its quiet off-season weeks of sunsets from a condo balcony are restful, but summer weekends bring crowds and traffic.