Myrtle Beach or Naples, Florida?

Both are excellent beach resorts, so the difference lies in the water and the mood. Myrtle Beach has the Grand Strand, about 100km of wide Atlantic sand with piers and oceanfront towers. The water is greenish, the waves are small, and it is only warm enough for swimming in summer. For calmer sand backed by dunes, head south to Surfside or Garden City.

The Gulf at Naples is clearer and usually flatter, and it stays swimmable for longer in the year. The day ends with the crowd watching the sun set over the water, which an east-facing Atlantic beach cannot offer. Clam Pass and Barefoot Beach feel wilder, and shelling is good, but watch for stingrays and the occasional algae bloom.

Neither is a place to travel for food, but Naples eats better. Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South offer long, white-tablecloth dinners, and there is grouper and stone crab at the dockside fish houses around Tin City. Expect high prices and little variety.

On the strip, Myrtle Beach is mostly seafood buffets, pancake houses and chain restaurants. Its better meals are a short drive away, in the waterfront restaurants of Murrells Inlet or at a Calabash-style fry-up over the North Carolina line.

Both are young resorts with little to see, though Naples has a little more. The Baker Museum has a good collection of modern and American art, the Revs Institute holds historic racing cars, and the Mediterranean-style streets of Old Naples are pleasant for a stroll. Myrtle Beach's main sight is Brookgreen Gardens, a sculpture garden on a former rice plantation, with the Moorish-style Atalaya house next door. Either way, one day covers it.

Myrtle Beach is the place for a night out. In summer the oceanfront blocks around the boardwalk fill with beach bars and rooftop decks, the entertainment complexes have dance clubs open late, and North Myrtle Beach still dances the shag in its old clubs on Main Street. It is loud rather than refined, and some weeks are rowdy.

Naples goes to bed early. An evening means a sunset drink at a tiki bar or a piano lounge on Fifth Avenue South, there are almost no clubs, and the town is quiet well before midnight.

Naples has far more wild country within reach. Big Cypress, the western Everglades, the Corkscrew Swamp boardwalk and the orchids of Fakahatchee Strand are all within an hour. Kayaking through the mangroves of Rookery Bay and the Ten Thousand Islands is a real highlight, with a chance of manatees and dolphins.

Myrtle Beach offers gentler outings. You can watch birds from the marsh boardwalks at Huntington Beach State Park, walk through the maritime forest in the city's own state park, or paddle the cypress swamps of the Waccamaw River. Golf is the bigger draw. Both landscapes are flat, and both are steamy in summer.

Myrtle Beach has the better day out. Charleston, about two hours south, has antebellum streets, harbour forts and plantations. Georgetown's rice-culture museum and Wilmington's riverfront add variety closer to hand.

The outings from Naples are pleasant but lighter. The Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers and the shelling islands of Sanibel and Captiva are the main choices, with Sarasota's Ringling museums at the edge of a comfortable day. You need a car from either city.

Myrtle Beach was built for family vacations. Resort hotels come with lazy rivers and suites with kitchens, and around them are an aquarium, water parks, a wooden roller coaster, a big observation wheel and pirate-themed mini-golf. Traffic and the rowdy spring break weeks are the main drawbacks.

Naples is calmer and gentler. Children spend their days shelling and spotting dolphins, with Naples Zoo's primate boat tour and the children's museum for a change of scene. Once those are done, there is little else to do, as the big Orlando parks are over three hours away.

You need a car in both, and summer or winter traffic slows the main roads. The difference is the base you can walk from. Naples has the compact, flat grid of Old Naples, where you can reach the beach, the pier and Fifth Avenue on foot or by bike. In Myrtle Beach, the walkable part is the boardwalk blocks and the long, flat sand itself, and everything else sits along multi-lane highways.

Naples has more to browse. Third Street South and Fifth Avenue South are lined with galleries, jewellers and resort-wear boutiques under the palms, there is an open-air designer mall north of downtown, and Tin City's old clam sheds sell nautical souvenirs.

Myrtle Beach is about bargains. It has two large outlet centres, a more town-like feel at The Market Common, and huge beach shops full of inflatables. Look out for the sweetgrass baskets sold along the road south.

Myrtle Beach costs far less. It has so many motels and condos that off-season oceanfront rooms can be very cheap, and kitchens cut the cost of eating. July and long weekends are the exception.

Naples is expensive from January to April, with premium resort rates and restaurants priced for wealthy winter residents. Summer is cheaper but hot and stormy. Staying inland or in Fort Myers is the usual way to save.

Naples has more serious culture. Its arts campus is home to the Naples Philharmonic, alongside touring Broadway shows, chamber music and a professional theatre company, though this happens only from late autumn to spring. Myrtle Beach offers polished family entertainment instead: country and gospel revues, Christmas shows, pirate dinner theatre and cover bands in the beach bars.

Naples is the more restful place. Its beachfront resorts have large spas open to non-guests, and with quiet streets, sunset walks and a population there to unwind, the whole town feels slow.

Myrtle Beach has resort spas too, but its main strip in summer is loud and car-bound. To rest there, stay near Pawleys Island or come in spring or autumn. Neither city has a bathing or thermal tradition.