Marco Island or Pensacola?

Both are first-rate Gulf beach destinations, and the difference lies in the sand and the season. Marco Island has a single curving crescent of fine sand with shallow, calm water. Tigertail's lagoon and sandbar are good for wading, and the sea stays swimmable for much more of the year, around 21°C even in midwinter.

Pensacola's beaches are longer and wilder. Dazzling white quartz sand and low dunes run for miles through the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and the water is a clear green. The catch is a shorter swimming season, roughly late May to early October, and dangerous rip currents on rough days. The sound side has calmer water for small children.

Both run on Gulf seafood. On Marco Island that means waterfront grills, resort dining rooms and, in the cooler months, stone crab claws, and the most characterful meal is a fish platter by the docks in Goodland. Beyond that the choice thins quickly, and a serious dinner means driving to Naples.

Pensacola has more on its own doorstep. Chargrilled oysters, royal red shrimp and Creole-tinged gumbo come alongside modern Southern restaurants, brewery taprooms and brunch spots around Palafox Street, plus a Saturday market. Neither is a food destination, but Pensacola keeps you interested for longer.

Marco Island is a resort built from the 1960s on, and its one real cultural stop is the historical museum. It tells the story of the Calusa people and of the carved wooden figures dug up in the 1890s, and a morning covers it.

Pensacola has centuries of Spanish, French, British, Confederate and American rule to show. The restored houses around Plaza Ferdinand and the Seville district, the brick walls of Fort Pickens and the huge National Naval Aviation Museum fill two or three days. That makes it by far the better choice if you want sightseeing as well as beach.

On Marco Island the evening peaks with sunset drinks on a waterfront deck, and by the end of a late dinner most of the island has gone quiet. The busiest it gets is Goodland's dockside bars on winter weekend afternoons.

Pensacola offers a proper night out, if not a big one. Palafox Street and the Seville Quarter fill with locals and young Navy personnel at weekends, and the sand-floored beach bars on the island have a party feel in summer. The rowdy roadhouse bar on the state line at Perdido Key is a long-standing institution. Neither town has much in the way of clubs.

Marco Island has the richer wild country. It sits at the top of the Ten Thousand Islands, so paddling through mangroves, spotting dolphins and manatees, and fishing for snook and tarpon all start from the dock. Everglades National Park, Big Cypress and the Fakahatchee Strand are within an hour, with alligators, airboat rides and boardwalks through cypress swamp.

Pensacola's nature is gentler and more coastal. The national seashore has dunes, salt marsh and maritime forest with a bike path and good birdwatching, and inland the Blackwater River is known for canoeing and tubing on clear water. Divers have the one thing Marco can't match: a sunken aircraft carrier offshore that forms a large artificial reef.

Neither has a long list of day trips, and the difference is in where they take you. From Marco Island the best outings head into the swamp, to Everglades City and the old trading post at Chokoloskee. Naples, the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, and the islands of Sanibel and Captiva cover towns and more beaches.

Pensacola's day trips are mostly to towns. Mobile, about an hour west, has antebellum streets and a battleship museum, Fairhope sits across the bay, and the planned resort towns of Seaside and Rosemary Beach are further east along the coast.

Both suit young children on the beach, with soft sand and calm, shallow water. Marco Island is simpler and quieter: wading in Tigertail's lagoon, shelling, dolphin-spotting boat trips and resort pools with children's programmes. The zoo and children's museum in Naples are half an hour away.

Pensacola has a little more to do away from the sand. Children who like planes love the naval aviation museum, and the Blue Angels display team is based here. The Gulf Breeze Zoo, the lighthouse climb and the tunnels of Fort Pickens fill other days. Its sea is only warm enough for children in summer, though, while Marco's stays mild through the winter.

You need a car in both, so the difference is in what you can do without one. Marco Island is small and flat with cycle paths, so in the cooler months you can cycle between the beach, shops and restaurants. Naples, the Everglades and the airport are all drives.

Pensacola is more spread out, with the beach, the naval air station and Perdido Key strung along highways and bridges. To make up for it, the historic downtown is easy to walk, and a free trolley runs along the beach strip in season.

Neither is worth choosing for the shops. Marco Island's plazas sell resort wear, shells and coastal décor, but Naples is half an hour away, with upmarket boutiques on Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South and polished open-air malls.

Pensacola keeps its shopping local. There are independent boutiques and antique shops on Palafox Street, local crafts at the Saturday market and a standard chain mall inland.

Marco Island is expensive, above all from January to April, when winter visitors fill the beachfront resorts and condos and restaurant prices follow. Summer room rates are much lower and weekly condo rentals with kitchens help, but it is never a budget trip.

The same budget goes considerably further in Pensacola. Rooms in town and inland cost noticeably less than on the beach, casual seafood and Southern food are fairly priced, and the naval aviation museum is free. You will need a hire car in either place, so include it in your budget.

On Marco Island the stage is a small community theatre and, in winter, a guitarist or band in the resort bars. For the philharmonic or a touring show you drive to the performing arts centre in Naples.

Pensacola has its own season. The restored 1925 Saenger Theatre downtown hosts the local symphony, opera and ballet as well as touring shows, and there is a long-running community theatre and bars with live bands. It is regional in scale, but you don't have to drive anywhere for it.

Marco Island is made for slowing down. The big beachfront resorts have full-service spas with massages, treatments and pools facing the Gulf, and the plazas add day spas and yoga classes. Days settle into an easy rhythm of sand, sunset and an early night. There are no thermal baths or bathhouses, though, so the calm comes from the place rather than from any bathing tradition.

Pensacola has less of this. There are day spas in the larger beach hotels and massage studios in town, but nothing to match Marco's resort spas. For real quiet, go to Perdido Key or the emptier stretches of the island outside the summer peak.