Hilton Head or Marathon?

Hilton Head has the proper beach: one long Atlantic shore of wide, hard sand. Coligny has the facilities, Driessen, Folly Field and the Sea Pines stretch are quieter, and the gentle surf suits small children. The trade-off is greenish, sandy water coloured by the tides and the marsh.

Marathon is the other way round. Its shores are narrow, calm and sometimes edged with seagrass. Sombrero Beach is the best in town, and Bahia Honda, across the Seven Mile Bridge, is the finest nearby. The water is far clearer, and much of the best swimming is done off a boat over the reef, but for a day lying on the sand Hilton Head wins.

Both serve seafood by the water, and neither goes much beyond it. Hilton Head's cooking is Lowcountry: shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Lowcountry boils and May River oysters, with Old Town Bluffton for more local kitchens.

Marathon's is simple Keys cooking: blackened mahi and grouper, conch fritters, spiny lobster and stone crab in season, and key lime pie to finish. Some fish markets will cook the fish you caught yourself.

Neither is a place for sightseeing, and each sends visitors elsewhere for it: Savannah and Beaufort from Hilton Head, Key West from Marathon. Their own history is very different, though.

Hilton Head's sites tell the story of the Gullah people, at Mitchelville Freedom Park and in the old family neighbourhoods. Marathon's centre on Flagler's Overseas Railroad, with the workers' camp on Pigeon Key and the old Seven Mile Bridge beside the highway.

Both go quiet early, and a sunset drink is the main event. In summer Hilton Head has a little more going on around Coligny and the marinas, with cover bands on waterfront decks and a couple of late bars, but the crowd is mostly families and golfers.

Marathon's tiki bars and marina bars cater to anglers who are up before dawn. Anyone who wants a real night out drives the hour to Duval Street in Key West.

Both are flat and both are about water, but Marathon has more to offer on it. Sombrero Reef, in the national marine sanctuary, has snorkelling and diving among coral, and anglers come for bonefish and tarpon on the flats and sailfish offshore. Mangrove paddling at Curry Hammock and the Key deer on Big Pine Key round it out.

Hilton Head's outdoors are gentler. You can kayak through the spartina marsh, watch dolphins in Calibogue Sound, see herons and alligators on Pinckney Island and cycle long paved paths under the live oaks. It makes for easy, pleasant days, but there is no reef and nothing like the fishing in the Keys.

Hilton Head is much the better base for days out. Savannah's oak-shaded squares are under an hour away, and Beaufort and the Gullah communities of St Helena Island lie to the north. Daufuskie Island is a short ferry ride away, and Charleston is possible in a long day.

From Marathon there is one road, running in two directions. Key West, an hour to the south-west, makes a fine day out, and Islamorada is closer. After that the options run out, because the mainland is well over two hours away.

Hilton Head was largely laid out for family beach trips. It has wide beaches with gentle surf, bike paths where children can ride away from traffic and rental houses with kitchens. Crabbing off the docks, mini golf and the butterfly house fill in the gaps.

Marathon suits children who love animals, with the Turtle Hospital and the Dolphin Research Center. Still, the beaches are smaller, everything needs the car, and summer heat and storms leave fewer good months. Neither place has a zoo or a theme park.

In both places you will want a car, and in both one road carries almost everything. Hilton Head's main road clogs on summer weekends and changeover days. Once settled, though, many visitors switch to bikes on the island's path network or ride the hard sand at low tide.

Marathon stretches about ten miles along the Overseas Highway. It has a bike path but no walkable centre, and most visitors arrive after a long, scenic drive from Miami. The reef and the backcountry can only be reached by boat, so a charter or a rental boat becomes part of getting around.

Hilton Head at least gives a wet afternoon something to do. There are open-air shopping villages at Coligny, Shelter Cove and Harbour Town, outlet malls in Bluffton, local galleries and Gullah sweetgrass baskets to take home. Marathon's shops are practical, selling fishing tackle, dive gear and T-shirts along the highway, and for real browsing you have to go to Key West.

Both are expensive American resort destinations, and Hilton Head is a little easier on the budget. Its cheaper months, spring and autumn, are also pleasant months to visit, and sharing a rental house or staying in Bluffton cuts costs further.

Marathon's high season runs through winter and spring, and the charters, dive trips and boat rentals that people come for add up quickly. Its cheaper months, summer and early autumn, bring heat and fall in the hurricane season.

Hilton Head has a small but real arts calendar. The Arts Center of Coastal Carolina stages professional theatre and musicals, the island's symphony orchestra plays a winter season, and there is a jazz festival, a Gullah celebration and free summer concerts at Harbour Town and Shelter Cove. Marathon has a community theatre and singers with guitars at the sunset bars, and not much more.

In both places you relax by slowing down, and neither has a bathing or spa tradition. Hilton Head means beach walks, rides under the live oaks and very calm off-season months, with full resort spas and yoga studios if you want them. Marathon runs on tides and sunsets and doing very little near the water, and treatments mostly mean massages at the larger resorts.