Marco Island or Wilmington?

On Marco Island the beach is the whole point. Fine sand runs the length of the western shore within a short walk of most hotels, and the Gulf is calm, shallow and warm well into the cooler months. Tigertail's lagoon and sandbar and a boat ride to the wild shore of Keewaydin add variety.

Wilmington's beaches are good, but they sit away from the city at Wrightsville, Carolina and Kure, so a beach day means a drive and a hunt for parking. The Atlantic brings rip currents on rough days, and the sea is only inviting from late May to October.

Seafood is the base of both menus. On Marco Island that means grouper sandwiches, shrimp and winter stone crab at waterfront grills and resort dining rooms. The most characterful meal is a fish platter on the docks at Goodland, and anything more ambitious means a drive to Naples.

Wilmington has more variety and more local character. You get shrimp and grits, raw bars on the waterfront and eastern North Carolina's vinegar-sauced whole-hog barbecue. Downtown has modern Southern cooking in old brick buildings and a cluster of craft breweries.

Marco Island has almost no sightseeing of its own, because it was built as a resort from the 1960s onwards. Its one real stop is the historical museum, which tells the story of the Calusa people and the carved wooden figures found on the island in the 1890s.

Wilmington has a real old port to explore. Its large historic district of antebellum and Victorian houses under live oaks, the Bellamy Mansion with its account of enslaved labour, the Cotton Exchange and the Battleship North Carolina across the river fill two or three unhurried days.

A night out on Marco Island is a sunset drink on a deck, dinner and then quiet. The dockside bars at Goodland are livelier on winter weekend afternoons than anything on the island after dark.

Wilmington has a proper going-out district on and around Front Street. Rooftop terraces and pubs fill with a university crowd at weekends, and beach bars add to it in summer. Neither town has much club culture, so the choice is between a quiet island and a cheerful small-city bar crawl.

Both coasts are flat and watery, but Marco Island opens onto a far wilder stretch. The mangrove channels of the Ten Thousand Islands start at the canals, with manatees, dolphins and some of Florida's best fishing for snook and tarpon. Everglades National Park and Big Cypress are within an hour.

Wilmington's outdoors is on a smaller scale: salt marsh, tidal creeks and longleaf pine, with Masonboro Island for paddling and surf off Wrightsville. Its one true rarity is the wild Venus flytrap in Carolina Beach State Park. Both are best outside the humid summer, when insects are at their worst.

The two lists carry similar weight but point in different directions. From Marco Island the best days out go into nature: airboats in the Everglades and the old trading post at Chokoloskee. Naples and the Edison and Ford Winter Estates at Fort Myers are the town options.

Wilmington's outings are mostly to small historic towns. Southport leads to car-free Bald Head Island, Fort Fisher's earthworks and the colonial ruins of Brunswick Town lie along the way, and colonial New Bern and Beaufort are further north.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Marco Island is the simpler beach vacation: calm, shallow water, wading in the Tigertail lagoon, dolphin-spotting boat trips and resort kids' programmes. Anything built for children, such as the zoo, is in Naples.

Wilmington needs the car to reach the sand but has more for rainy days: the aquarium at Fort Fisher, the battleship's decks, the Children's Museum and the old-fashioned boardwalk rides at Carolina Beach. It is mainly a summer place for families, while Marco Island also works in winter.

You will want a car in both places. On Marco Island, flat roads and cycle paths make biking between the beach, shops and restaurants pleasant in winter. The Everglades, Naples and the airport are all drives, and the bus link is very limited.

Wilmington is a little easier because its downtown and historic district can be done on foot along the riverwalk. The beaches, 15km or more away, and every day trip still mean driving and slow summer parking.

Neither is a shopping destination, but the kind of shopping differs. Marco Island's plazas sell resort wear, shells and coastal décor, and the upmarket boutiques and malls are in Naples, half an hour away. Wilmington's strength is independent shops: bookshops, antique dealers and galleries along Front Street and in the restored Cotton Exchange, better for browsing than for big brands.

Marco Island is the more expensive stay, especially from January to April. That is when beachfront rooms and condos are in demand and meals are priced for a well-off winter crowd. Summer rates fall, and condos with kitchens help, but it never becomes cheap.

Wilmington is moderately priced, with reasonable off-season city hotels and fair-value seafood and barbecue. Summer beach rentals cost more, and a hire car adds to the bill in both places.

Marco Island offers a small community theatre and live guitarists in resort bars during the winter. For an orchestra or a touring show, you drive to the performing arts centre in Naples.

Wilmington has a busy scene for a city of its size, centred on Thalian Hall, a restored 19th-century opera house. A larger arts centre takes touring musicals, outdoor stages by Greenfield Lake host bands in the warm months, and long-running jazz and blues festivals fill out the calendar.

Neither place has a bathing tradition, so the difference lies in pace and setting. Marco Island is built for slowing down, with full-service resort spas, pools looking out over the Gulf and quiet days that end at sunset.

Wilmington has day spas, yoga studios and calm waterfront evenings. It is still a working city with weekend bar crowds and summer beach traffic, so switching off takes a little more effort.