Miami Beach or Panama City Beach?

The two beaches are close in quality but feel very different. Miami Beach has about 11km of wide sand facing the Atlantic, with green-blue water that stays warm enough for swimming through the winter. South Beach is the place for people-watching, with music and vendors, while Mid-Beach and North Beach are calmer.

Panama City Beach has almost four times as much shoreline, with powder-white quartz sand and clear green Gulf water. There is more room to spread out, especially in St. Andrews State Park and on Shell Island. The catch is that the sea is too cold for swimming in winter, and rip currents mean watching the flags all year.

Miami Beach gives you much more to eat. Cuban sandwiches and croquetas from takeaway windows, Florida stone crabs in season, and ceviche and arepas reflect the Latin communities, and there is upscale dining in the hotels. The tourist menus on Ocean Drive are best skipped, and Little Havana is just across the causeway.

Panama City Beach does one thing well: Gulf seafood eaten casually, such as blackened grouper, shrimp baskets and local oysters on a dockside deck. Beyond that, chains and themed restaurants fill most of Front Beach Road.

Miami Beach has a real sight of its own in the Art Deco Historic District, hundreds of pastel 1930s buildings you can explore on foot. It adds the Wolfsonian's design collection, the Bass and the Holocaust Memorial, with the larger museums across the bay.

Panama City Beach has almost nothing in this line. The beach strip was built mostly after the mid-twentieth century, and apart from the small Man in the Sea Museum, the nearest older streets are in Panama City's St. Andrews district.

This is where the two differ most. South Beach is a world-famous place to go out, with DJ clubs open until dawn, afternoon pool parties and lobby bars made for being seen. It is glamorous and expensive, with dress codes and door policies.

Panama City Beach is about a frozen drink at a tiki hut at sunset and a cover band at a deck bar near Pier Park. Outside summer weekends and the rowdy spring break weeks, the town is quiet by mid-evening.

Both are flat coasts where outdoor life means the water, but the landscapes differ. Miami Beach is almost all city, so you paddle the bay, dive offshore reefs and wrecks, or drive about an hour to the Everglades for alligators, airboats and sawgrass.

Panama City Beach has wilder coast on its doorstep. St. Andrews State Park has tall white dunes and pine flatwoods, Camp Helen has a rare coastal dune lake, and dolphin-watching trips leave from St. Andrew Bay.

Miami Beach has the wider choice. Mainland Miami alone gives you Little Havana, the Vizcaya villa and gardens and Coral Gables, and Palm Beach or Key Largo are within reach for a longer outing.

From Panama City Beach, the best trips are west along Scenic Highway 30A to the planned towns of Seaside and Rosemary Beach, or east to the old oyster port of Apalachicola. Pensacola is about as far as a day allows. Either way you will mostly need a car.

Panama City Beach is built around families. It has a water park, a long-running marine park with dolphin shows, a small zoo, go-karts and mini-golf along the main road, and a sheltered lagoon where small children can try snorkelling. Avoid March, when spring break takes over the strip.

Miami Beach offers gentle water and lifeguards along its whole shore, and Mid-Beach or North Beach make a calm base. The zoo and the science museum are on the mainland, though, and South Beach is too loud for young children on weekends.

Miami Beach is far easier without a car. South Beach is compact and walkable, free trolleys run up Collins Avenue, and bike share and the beachwalk link the neighbourhoods. Leaving the island is the hard part, because there is no rail link.

Panama City Beach spreads along about 43km of one road and a highway, with patchy pavements and slow, sparse trolley-buses. You need a car for almost everything, and in summer Front Beach Road can crawl.

Miami Beach offers two very different kinds of shopping. Lincoln Road is a pleasant pedestrian street of international chains, and at the island's northern tip Bal Harbour gathers the major European fashion and jewellery houses.

In Panama City Beach, shopping means the mainstream chains at Pier Park and the huge souvenir and beachwear warehouses with shark-mouth entrances. For anything more individual, go to the boutiques in the 30A towns.

Panama City Beach is noticeably easier on the wallet. Condo rentals with kitchens let you cook, and outside summer and spring break rates fall sharply, with long winter stays especially cheap. You still have to budget for car hire and usual American resort prices.

Miami Beach is expensive. Winter oceanfront hotels, resort fees, parking and South Beach cocktails all add up. You can spend less by staying in North Beach, coming in summer and using the free trolleys instead of a car.

Miami Beach has a real arts calendar from autumn to spring. The New World Symphony plays in its Frank Gehry hall and some concerts are projected onto the outside wall for people on the lawn. Miami City Ballet is based on the island, and the Colony Theatre stages smaller productions.

Panama City Beach offers cover bands and acoustic sets on restaurant decks. Its only theatre of note is a restored historic house across the bay with a modest programme.

Miami Beach has much more spa choice. Its large resort spas have hydrotherapy circuits, saunas and plunge pools, and sunrise yoga in the beachfront parks is common. For quiet, stay in Mid-Beach or towards Surfside rather than South Beach.

Panama City Beach has only a few resort and day spas. Its calm comes from the empty beach from autumn to spring, when long sunset walks on the white sand do more for rest than any treatment room.