Myrtle Beach or St. Petersburg, Florida?

These are two equally strong beach destinations, but the beaches are quite different. Myrtle Beach sits right on the Atlantic, with about 100km of continuous pale sand right outside the hotels. The water is greenish, and the central blocks are packed and noisy in summer, so for quiet you head south to the dune-backed beaches at Surfside or Garden City.

St. Petersburg's beaches are on barrier islands west of downtown, so staying in the city means a short trip to the sand. The reward is fine white sand and calm, clearer Gulf water at St. Pete Beach and Pass-a-Grille, and wilder shores at Fort De Soto. The sea is also a little warmer there at its summer peak.

St. Petersburg is the more rewarding place to eat, though neither is a destination for serious food lovers. Myrtle Beach's own strip is mostly seafood buffets, pancake houses and chains, and the best meals are a drive away, at the waterfront restaurants of Murrells Inlet or in the Calabash style of fried seafood over the state line.

In St. Petersburg you can eat well within the city. There are grouper sandwiches and stone crab at the Pass-a-Grille fish shacks and chef-led kitchens along Central Avenue. The city's many small breweries are the real draw, and Tampa's Cuban cooking is close by.

The gap here is wide. Myrtle Beach is a twentieth-century resort, and its sights are mostly just outside town: the sculpture garden at Brookgreen, set on a former rice plantation, and the Moorish-style Atalaya next door. Both fit easily into one day.

St. Petersburg has a proper museum quarter on its waterfront. It is led by the Dalí Museum, with its glass bubble, and backed by the Museum of Fine Arts, the Chihuly glass and collections of Western art and Arts and Crafts design. You'd want two or three days for it, with 1920s Mediterranean Revival buildings and street murals in between.

Myrtle Beach is about dancing late. St. Petersburg is about a few drinks on foot. In summer Myrtle Beach goes loud with dance clubs and themed bars in the entertainment complexes and shot-bar crowds along the boardwalk, and the old Carolina shag is still danced in North Myrtle Beach. Some weeks get rowdy, and out of season it goes quiet early.

In St. Petersburg, cocktail bars, rooftops and brewery taprooms are close together on Central Avenue, and on the beach the tiki bars start the night at sunset. Anyone who wants a club crosses to Ybor City in Tampa.

Both are flat coastal country with no hills. St. Petersburg has the better water-based nature, with mangrove paddling trails at Weedon Island and Shell Key, where you can see dolphins, rays and, in winter, manatees. The paved Pinellas Trail adds easy cycling.

Myrtle Beach offers birding and alligators at Huntington Beach State Park, kayaking in the cypress swamps of the Waccamaw River and a great deal of golf. In both places, summer pushes any activity into the early morning.

From Myrtle Beach, Charleston is the one standout. Its antebellum streets and harbour forts make a long day, two hours each way by car. Closer in there are smaller historic stops at Georgetown and on Wilmington's riverfront.

St. Petersburg has a wider spread nearer to hand. Tampa's Ybor City is just across the bay, and the Ringling in Sarasota, the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs and Orlando's theme parks can all be done in a day. You'll need a car from either base.

Myrtle Beach has the edge, because the whole resort is built around children. The hotels have lazy rivers, and on the doorstep there's an aquarium, an amusement park with a wooden coaster, an observation wheel and water parks, all within a short drive of each other.

St. Petersburg is still a fine family beach base with the same gentle, shallow water. But its bigger attractions, such as Busch Gardens, the Clearwater dolphin aquarium and Orlando, are a drive away rather than next to the hotel.

St. Petersburg is the easier of the two without a car, though only in the centre. Its compact downtown links the pier, the museums and Central Avenue on foot, and a trolley loop and a rapid bus reach St. Pete Beach.

Myrtle Beach is spread along 100km of multi-lane highway with few pavements and sparse buses. Unless you stay put in the boardwalk area, you'll be driving in slow summer traffic.

For shopping the two are about level, but what you find could hardly be more different. Myrtle Beach shops in bulk: two big outlet centres at either end of the city draw bargain hunters, waterfront complexes mix chain stores with restaurants, and huge beachwear shops along the highway are piled with swimsuits and inflatables. The one local craft is the sweetgrass baskets sold along the coast road to the south.

St. Petersburg is small and personal instead, with vintage and record shops, boutiques and galleries of local glass and prints along Central Avenue, and a Saturday market downtown in the winter season. For big brands, people drive to the malls in Tampa.

Myrtle Beach is the cheaper of the two. Its huge stock of motels, rooms and condos keeps rates low outside July and long weekends, and kitchens cut the cost of eating.

St. Petersburg charges full American resort prices. Beachfront rates peak from February to April, which is exactly when its weather is at its best, and you'll pay for beach parking on top. Summer is the better-value season, if you can take the heat.

St. Petersburg has the more serious evenings out. The Florida Orchestra plays at the Mahaffey Theater, there's a professional regional theatre and an intimate concert hall in a former church, and Tampa's large arts centre is close by for opera and ballet.

Myrtle Beach offers polished entertainment rather than art: country and gospel revues, Christmas spectaculars, knights-and-pirates dinner shows and touring rock and country acts.

Neither place has a bathing tradition, so in both, wellness means resort spas. St. Petersburg is the more restful of the two. Its mild, dry winters, quiet Pass-a-Grille and nightly sunsets over the Gulf set a slow pace, and downtown has yoga studios and day spas.

Myrtle Beach only slows down away from the summer strip. For a calm stay, go to Pawleys Island in spring or autumn.