Miami or St. Pete Beach?

Both have a long barrier-island strip of pale sand, and both deliver. Miami Beach faces east onto the Atlantic and is built up and busy from South Beach to Surfside. Key Biscayne has calmer water, and the sea is warm enough to swim in every month.

St. Pete Beach looks west over the Gulf, so its signature is the sunset over the water, and the surf is gentler still. Pass-a-Grille and Fort De Soto feel lower-key and less developed than anywhere on the Miami strip. The winter sea is noticeably cooler, though, and red tide sometimes spoils the water, where Miami's nuisance is sargassum.

Miami has a whole food culture to explore. There are Cuban coffee windows and lechon in Little Havana, Haitian, Venezuelan and Peruvian cooking around the city, and chef-led restaurants in Brickell and the Design District.

St. Pete Beach eats simply by the water, with grouper sandwiches and smoked fish spread on a deck at sunset. Beyond that, the choice soon thins out into the chain restaurants of Gulf Boulevard. Both serve stone crab claws in season, but for more ambitious cooking, St. Pete Beach visitors drive across to St. Petersburg.

Miami gives you a few days of real sightseeing: the Art Deco District on foot, Vizcaya and its gardens on the bay, the Perez Art Museum and the murals of Wynwood. St. Pete Beach has the pink Don CeSar, Pass-a-Grille's old cottages and the war batteries at Fort De Soto, which fill an afternoon at most. Its serious museums, the Dalí among them, are across the bay in St. Petersburg.

This is where the two differ most. Miami goes out late and hard, from South Beach clubs with international DJs to Wynwood warehouse bars, Brickell rooftops and salsa on Calle Ocho.

At St. Pete Beach the evening peaks at sunset, with a cover band on a tiki deck, and most people are back at their hotel soon after dark. There are no clubs, so a bigger night means a drive into downtown St. Petersburg.

Both landscapes are flat and watery, but Miami has the bigger draw in the Everglades. Within the hour you can see alligators on the Anhinga Trail or take an airboat, and there is snorkelling in Biscayne National Park and on the reefs off Key Largo. St. Pete Beach's outdoors is gentler and closer at hand: kayaking the mangroves at Fort De Soto and Shell Key, dolphins seen from boats, manatees in the cooler months and roseate spoonbills for birdwatchers.

St. Pete Beach is the better base for getting out. St. Petersburg's Dalí Museum, Ybor City in Tampa, Greek-rooted Tarpon Springs and Sarasota's Ringling estate are all within about an hour, and each makes a different kind of day.

From Miami the choice is narrower. Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach lie to the north and the Upper Keys to the south, while Key West really needs an overnight stay. Most Miami visitors spend their spare days in the Everglades instead.

St. Pete Beach is easier with small children. The Gulf is shallow and calm, hotels open straight onto the sand, and there is no party strip to avoid. Dolphin boats, shelling and the Fort De Soto pier fill the days, with aquariums and Busch Gardens about an hour away.

Miami has more in the city itself, from Zoo Miami and the Frost Science Museum to the Venetian Pool. Distances are longer, though, and South Beach's late-night side is not what most parents want. Orlando's theme parks are also nearer to St. Pete Beach than to Miami.

Neither works well without a car. Miami at least has the free Metromover between downtown and Brickell, a Metrorail line from the airport, and a flat South Beach that is easy on foot or by bike, although no rail line reaches the beach. St. Pete Beach is a single strip with a beach trolley and two small walkable centres, and every outing beyond it means a drive.

Miami is worth a shopping trip in itself. It has the fashion houses of the Design District, exclusive Bal Harbour, the huge Aventura Mall and outlet malls on the western edge. St. Pete Beach offers swimwear, souvenirs and a handful of boutiques and galleries on Corey Avenue and in Pass-a-Grille, and anyone wanting more heads inland to Tampa.

Both are expensive, with high beachfront rates, tipping on top and, for most visitors, a hire car. Miami's biggest costs are South Beach drinks and resort fees, softened by cheap Cuban lunch counters and the free Metromover. St. Pete Beach is dearest from February to April, and older motels a block back from the sand, or a stay in late summer, bring the bill down.

Miami has a proper performing arts scene. Florida Grand Opera and touring shows play the Adrienne Arsht Center, the city has Miami City Ballet and the New World Symphony in its Frank Gehry hall, and there is live salsa and timba in Little Havana. Live music at St. Pete Beach means cover bands and acoustic sets in the beach bars, so concerts and theatre mean a drive to St. Petersburg or Tampa.

Neither has a bathing tradition beyond resort spas, though Miami Beach does keep its long-established Russian and Turkish bath house with banya and cold plunges. The bigger difference is pace. In Miami, the noise and social scene push anyone wanting rest out to Key Biscayne or Surfside. At St. Pete Beach, and above all in Pass-a-Grille, a slow pace is simply the norm.