Gulf Shores or Miami Beach?

Both have long stretches of pale sand, but the beach life is different. Gulf Shores has fine white quartz sand that squeaks underfoot, with low dunes in Gulf State Park and towards Fort Morgan where it is easy to find a quiet patch. However, the swimming season ends in October, and rip currents make the flags important.

Miami Beach has the edge because you can swim there for more of the year, and the Atlantic is usually calm. It also offers a choice of moods along about 11km: South Beach for crowds and people-watching, Mid-Beach and North Beach for space. The price is music, vendors and busy sand in the popular stretches, and on some summer days there are jellyfish or seaweed.

Gulf Shores eats simply and well from the Gulf: Royal Red shrimp, chargrilled oysters and gumbo with a Louisiana accent, mostly at open-air shacks or cooked in the condo kitchen. Beyond seafood there is little range.

Miami Beach gives you far more choice. Its Latin American cooking brings cafecito and croquetas from takeaway windows, ceviche and arepas, and stone crab in winter at Joe's, open since the early 20th century. Avoid the tourist menus on Ocean Drive and eat in the side streets or North Beach instead.

Here the gap is wide. In Gulf Shores the one real sight is Fort Morgan, the brick star fort that played its part in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, and after a morning there you have seen most of it.

Miami Beach is a sight in itself. The Art Deco Historic District's pastel hotels, porthole windows and neon are easy to walk along Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue, and they lead on to the Miami Modern hotels further north. The Wolfsonian, the Bass and the Holocaust Memorial add enough for a couple of days, while the bigger museums are across the bay.

South Beach is one of the best-known party districts in the world. It has big DJ clubs that fill after midnight, pool parties in the afternoon and lobby bars made for being seen, all with dress codes and table service. If you prefer something quieter, Sunset Harbour and Mid-Beach have cocktail and wine bars.

Gulf Shores is a different kind of night out: frozen drinks on sandy open-air decks, a few late bars on the beach strip in summer, and the rowdy roadhouse on the Florida line at Perdido Key. Most of the town is asleep early, and there are no clubs at all.

The two are well matched outdoors, but the settings differ. Gulf Shores offers more on land: paved cycling trails through the maritime forest of Gulf State Park, the dune and lake paths of Bon Secour, spring and autumn bird migration on the western peninsula, and kayaking in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta's river swamp.

Miami Beach looks out to sea and south to the wetlands. It has snorkelling and diving on offshore reefs and wrecks, mangrove paddling at Oleta River, and the Everglades and Biscayne National Park within about an hour. Both are completely flat, and in summer, mornings are the only comfortable time to be active in either.

There is about as much to do on outings from one as from the other. From Gulf Shores, the trips are to old Gulf Coast towns: Mobile's ironwork balconies and the USS Alabama, bayside Fairhope, Pensacola's historic district and the ferry across to Dauphin Island.

From Miami Beach, the best outing is right across the bay, to Little Havana, Vizcaya and Coral Gables. Palm Beach and Key Largo are each about an hour and a half away by car. In both places you will want a car for most trips, but mainland Miami is close enough to reach without one.

Gulf Shores is designed for families. You get condos with kitchens and pools, a water park and a small hands-on zoo, and the Ferris wheel in Orange Beach and the theme park in Foley are close by for hot or rainy afternoons. Gulf State Park adds a nature centre and a fishing pier. The surf is the main concern, because rip currents mean children need watching.

Miami Beach's water is usually gentler, with lifeguards along the whole shore, and Mid-Beach and North Beach suit young children well. Beyond the sand and the playgrounds, though, the zoo and the animal parks are on the mainland. South Beach on a weekend is no place for a pushchair.

Without a car, Gulf Shores barely works. The resort runs for miles along one beach road, and the restaurants and attractions are on highways inland. Bikes are only really useful inside Gulf State Park.

Miami Beach is much easier. South Beach is flat and compact enough to walk, free trolleys run up Collins Avenue, and bike share and the beachwalk cover the rest. The weak point is leaving the island, because there is no rail link, so trips to the mainland and the airport mean ride-hailing, causeway buses or a hire car.

Shopping in Gulf Shores is about beachwear, souvenirs and fishing tackle. The one real outing is the outlet mall in Foley, which is a good way to spend a wet afternoon.

Miami Beach has two proper places to shop. Lincoln Road, the palm-shaded pedestrian mall designed by Morris Lapidus, is lined with international chains and makes a pleasant evening stroll. Bal Harbour, at the north end of the island, brings together the big European fashion and jewellery houses. Neither place has much in the way of local craft or markets.

Gulf Shores is the cheaper of the two, mostly because a condo kitchen and free beaches and park trails keep daily spending low. It gets pricey in June and July, and much cheaper in winter.

In Miami Beach the cheap season is the reverse: summer, with heat and storms as the trade-off. In the winter peak, oceanfront rooms, resort fees, parking and South Beach cocktails make it costly. Side-street hotels, North Beach, Cuban takeaway windows and the free trolleys help to soften the bill.

Miami Beach has a real stage life of its own. The New World Symphony plays in Frank Gehry's hall and sometimes projects its concerts onto the outside wall for people on the lawn. Miami City Ballet is based here, and the Colony and Jackie Gleason theatres host shows, mostly from autumn to spring.

Gulf Shores has nothing formal, but it is better for live bands. There are singer-songwriters on beach-bar stages every day, a long-running songwriters' festival every November at the state-line roadhouse, and touring country and rock acts at the Orange Beach amphitheatre. Miami Beach's clubs, by contrast, lean to DJs.

Miami Beach gives you more to work with: large resort spas with saunas, steam rooms and plunge pools, and sunrise yoga on the sand. For a restful week, stay in Mid-Beach or towards Surfside rather than in loud South Beach.

Gulf Shores has only a handful of spas offering massages. Its restful side is the pace: a quiet, early-to-bed town outside summer weekends, where many visitors are happy just to watch the sunset from a condo balcony.