Gulf Shores or Palm Beach?

Both are excellent beach places, but in different ways. Gulf Shores has the better sand: an unbroken run of fine white quartz from Fort Morgan to the Florida line, with quiet, dune-backed stretches in Gulf State Park. The water, though, is for swimming only from late spring to autumn, and rip currents need watching.

Palm Beach has the warmer and more reliable sea, clear and swimmable all year thanks to the Gulf Stream. Its own shore is narrow and often walled off by estates, so you will use the Municipal Beach and Phipps Ocean Park, or drive to Singer Island or Jupiter for wider sand. Peanut Island adds calm, shallow water.

Neither is a place to travel for the food, but Palm Beach offers more range. Gulf Shores eats at seafood shacks and on beach-bar decks: Royal Red shrimp, oysters and gumbo with a Louisiana accent, filling rather than refined.

On the island, Palm Beach has formal Italian and French dining rooms off Worth Avenue, with stone crab in season, and the dress codes are taken seriously. Across the bridge, West Palm Beach adds Cuban bakeries, Caribbean takeaways and a waterfront green market.

The gap is wide here. Gulf Shores has Fort Morgan, the brick star fort from the Battle of Mobile Bay, and little else.

Palm Beach fills two or three days well. It has Flagler's Whitehall, Mizner's Mediterranean Revival vias and Bethesda-by-the-Sea, the estates along South Ocean Boulevard, and the Norton Museum of Art across the lagoon.

Nights out are modest in both places, but they look quite different. In Gulf Shores you go to sandy, open-air beach-bar decks with frozen drinks and live bands. The famous roadhouse on the Perdido Key state line stays loud late, and spring break brings a younger crowd.

Palm Beach island is asleep by eleven after a drink in a hotel bar. To go out properly you cross to Clematis Street and Rosemary Square in West Palm Beach, which have rooftop terraces, cocktail bars and a couple of dance spots. Wear flip-flops in one and dress up for the other.

Both are flat, watery and sticky in summer, and Palm Beach comes out ahead because of what lies under the sea. Gulf Shores has dune and marsh trails in Gulf State Park and Bon Secour, bird migration in spring and autumn, dolphin cruises and the huge Mobile-Tensaw Delta for paddling.

Palm Beach has reefs close offshore and the famous shallow dive site under the Blue Heron Bridge. Inland, the Loxahatchee boardwalks on the northern edge of the Everglades have alligators. Sea turtles nest on the beaches in summer, and manatees gather in winter.

There is about as much to do beyond town from either base, but the outings differ in character. From Gulf Shores they are Southern and historic: Mobile's ironwork balconies and the USS Alabama, bayside Fairhope, Pensacola's naval aviation museum and the ferry to Dauphin Island, all by car.

From Palm Beach the big outing is Miami, an hour away by fast train, for South Beach's Art Deco and Little Havana. Delray Beach, Boca Raton and Jupiter's lighthouse are pleasant but rather alike.

Gulf Shores is the stronger family choice because the whole resort is arranged around children. It has condos with kitchens and pools, soft sand, a water park, a small zoo, the Ferris wheel in Orange Beach and the theme park in Foley.

Palm Beach works for families who skip the formal island and head across the bridge. There they will find the zoo, the science centre and aquarium, and Manatee Lagoon, and Peanut Island's shallow lagoon suits small swimmers.

You need a car in both places, but Palm Beach depends on it less. Gulf Shores is strung out along one beach road and inland highways, with almost no public transport and heavy traffic over the bridges on summer weekends.

In Palm Beach the Worth Avenue area is good to walk and the Lake Trail makes cycling a pleasure. Downtown West Palm Beach has a free trolley, and the fast train reaches Miami without a car.

Palm Beach is a real shopping destination and Gulf Shores is not. Worth Avenue's luxury houses and courtyard boutiques, the island's designer consignment shops and the dealers on Antique Row give it depth. Gulf Shores has giant beachwear stores, fishing shops and the Foley outlet mall for a rainy day.

Gulf Shores is far kinder on the wallet. Even in its expensive June and July peak it is a typical US beach resort, and in winter condo rents drop sharply, which is why long winter stays are common.

Palm Beach is among the most expensive resort towns in the country, especially in its winter season. Staying in West Palm Beach, coming in summer and sticking to the beaches and the Lake Trail help, but only up to a point.

Palm Beach has real theatre and concert venues. The Kravis Center hosts touring Broadway shows, orchestras, ballet and Palm Beach Opera's short season, and Palm Beach Dramaworks puts on serious plays, though almost all of it happens in winter.

Gulf Shores has bands on beach-bar stages, a songwriters' festival every November at the state-line roadhouse, and touring country and rock acts at the Orange Beach amphitheatre. For a symphony or theatre, you drive to Mobile.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so the difference comes down to the resorts. Palm Beach's big oceanfront hotels run polished spas with salt-water pools and fitness programmes, and the quiet, manicured island suits slow walks along the lagoon and yoga on the beach.

Gulf Shores has only a few day spas. Its restful side is a quiet off-season week watching sunsets from a condo balcony.