Gulf Shores or Naples, Florida?

Both have first-rate Gulf beaches, so the choice comes down to character. Gulf Shores has one long, unbroken strand of white quartz sand from Fort Morgan to the Florida line, lined with condo towers in places and backed by low dunes in Gulf State Park. The surf can carry rip currents, and swimming runs from late spring to October.

Naples has calmer, shallower water for paddling and wading, the pier and street-end access paths of Old Naples, and wilder stretches at Clam Pass and Barefoot Beach. The water stays usable into winter and the shelling is good, though stingrays and the odd algae bloom need watching.

Neither is a place to travel for food, and both rely on Gulf seafood. Gulf Shores serves it casually: fried shrimp, Royal Reds and gumbo at open-air shacks and beach-bar restaurants, and many visitors cook market shrimp in their condo.

Naples has more choice and more polish, with white-tablecloth dining rooms and wine bars along Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South, stone crab claws in the cooler months, and dockside fish houses around Tin City. You pay noticeably more for it.

Neither has much culture, but Naples can fill a day: the Baker Museum's modern and American art, the historic racing cars at the Revs Institute, Palm Cottage and the Mediterranean-style streets of Old Naples. Gulf Shores has really just one sight, the brick star fort at Fort Morgan, which fought in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864 and is worth a morning. For anything more, you drive to Mobile.

Gulf Shores has the livelier nights, though only in a beach-bar way: open-air decks with sand underfoot, the famous roadhouse on the state line at Perdido Key, and a younger crowd at spring break.

Naples winds down earlier. Its evenings mean wine bars and piano lounges on Fifth Avenue South or a sunset drink at a tiki bar, and the older crowd is mostly home before midnight. Neither town has a club scene.

Both landscapes are flat and watery, but the wilder country lies around Naples. Big Cypress, the western Everglades, the Corkscrew Swamp boardwalk and the mangrove channels of the Ten Thousand Islands are all within an hour, with alligators, wading birds and manatees, and kayaking in Rookery Bay is a real highlight.

Gulf Shores offers gentler days outdoors: cycling the paved trails of Gulf State Park, dune walks in the Bon Secour refuge, bird migration in spring and autumn, and deep-sea fishing from Orange Beach. The Mobile-Tensaw Delta, a great river swamp best seen by boat or kayak, is its nearest equivalent to the Everglades.

Gulf Shores has more within easy reach. Mobile's ironwork balconies and the USS Alabama, bayside Fairhope, and Pensacola's historic district and naval aviation museum are all within about an hour. The car ferry from Fort Morgan to Dauphin Island makes a good outing in its own right.

From Naples the closer trips are the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, the shelling islands of Sanibel and Captiva, and old Everglades City. The Ringling museums at Sarasota and Miami are about two hours away, which makes a long day. You need a car for all of them, from either town.

Gulf Shores is the more complete family resort. It is built around condos with pools and kitchens, with a water park, a small zoo, the Ferris wheel at Orange Beach and a theme park in nearby Foley for hot afternoons. Children need watching in the surf because of rip currents.

Naples has the gentler water. The Gulf there is shallow and usually calm, and dolphins and shells keep small children busy. Naples Zoo, with its boat tour, and the Golisano Children's Museum are each good for half a day, but there is less to fill a full week.

You need a car in either. Naples has the edge because Old Naples is a compact, flat grid where you can walk or cycle between the beach, the pier, restaurants and shops. Gulf Shores stretches for miles along one beach road, with everything else on inland highways, so walking only works within your own stretch of beach, and traffic over the bridges is slow on summer weekends.

Naples is the town for browsing, with galleries, jewellers and resort-wear boutiques along Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South, an open-air luxury mall with designer brands, and the old clam-shelling sheds of Tin City. Shopping in Gulf Shores is practical: beachwear emporiums, fishing and surf shops, and the large outlet mall in Foley, which is good for a rainy day.

Gulf Shores is the cheaper of the two, especially outside June and July, when condo prices drop sharply and long winter stays become common.

Naples is expensive, with premium resort rates from roughly January to April and restaurants aimed at a wealthy crowd. Its cheaper months are the hot, stormy summer. In both towns the beaches are free and a rental car adds to the cost.

Naples has a real arts season, with the Naples Philharmonic in its own hall, touring Broadway shows, chamber music and professional theatre from late autumn to spring, though little happens in summer. In Gulf Shores live music is more informal: bands on beach-bar stages, a November songwriters' festival at the state-line roadhouse, and touring country and rock acts at the Orange Beach amphitheatre.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so it comes down to spas and pace. Naples does this better, with large, well-run resort spas, fitness classes and a population that is largely there to unwind. Gulf Shores has a few day spas, and outside summer weekends its quiet, early-to-bed weeks are restful in their own way.