Myrtle Beach or West Palm Beach?

Both are first-rate beach destinations, but the beaches work differently. At Myrtle Beach the sand is the city. The Grand Strand runs unbroken for about 100km of wide, flat shore. It is crowded and lined with towers in the centre and calmer among the dunes at Surfside and Garden City, with greenish water and small waves.

In West Palm Beach, downtown faces a lagoon, so going to the beach means a short trip over the bridges to Palm Beach, Singer Island or Juno. The reward is clearer water, sheltered swimming and snorkelling at Peanut Island, and a sea warm enough to swim in all year rather than only in summer.

West Palm Beach eats better, though neither is a place to travel to for the food. The Myrtle Beach strip is buffets, pancake houses and chains. Its best meals are a drive away, at the waterfront restaurants of Murrells Inlet or in Calabash-style fried seafood over the state line.

West Palm has more choice close at hand. There is grilled grouper and stone crab on the terraces of Clematis Street, formal dining rooms across the bridge in Palm Beach, and Cuban and Haitian bakeries away from the centre.

West Palm Beach has a good deal more to see. The Norton Museum is a serious art collection, and Whitehall tells the story of Flagler's railway. Palm Beach is worth an afternoon spent walking among its villas and the vias off Worth Avenue.

Myrtle Beach is a twentieth-century resort with little of its own history on show. Brookgreen Gardens, with its sculpture among live oaks on an old rice plantation, and the Moorish house of Atalaya next door make one good day. After that the beach takes over.

Myrtle Beach offers more of a night out, at least in summer. The blocks by the boardwalk, the rooftop decks and the entertainment complexes stay open late, with dance clubs among them, and North Myrtle Beach keeps the shag alive in long-standing clubs on Main Street. It is loud and casual, and some weeks get rowdy.

West Palm's scene is smaller and a little more grown-up: a few blocks of cocktail and sports bars on Clematis Street and around Rosemary Square that fill at weekends. Both go quiet in their off-season, Myrtle Beach in winter and West Palm in summer.

Both sit on flat, watery coastal plain, but West Palm Beach gives you more to do outdoors. The Gulf Stream puts reefs and drift dives a short boat ride away. The Blue Heron Bridge is a famous shore snorkel with seahorses and octopus, and Grassy Waters and the Loxahatchee refuge give a taste of the Everglades.

The outdoors around Myrtle Beach is gentler. There is birdwatching on the marsh boardwalks of Huntington Beach State Park, kayaking in the cypress swamps of the Waccamaw, dolphin cruises and, above all, golf on dozens of courses.

The two are close here, and the difference is in kind. The best outing from Myrtle Beach is Charleston, one of the South's best-preserved historic cities, but it is a long two-hour drive. Georgetown and Pawleys Island are nearer, and every trip needs a car.

From West Palm the big day out is Miami, about an hour away by fast train and a real change from a resort town. Most of the other outings, such as Delray Beach, Boca Raton and Jupiter, are coastal towns much like the base itself.

Myrtle Beach is built for children in a way West Palm is not. The gentle surf, resort hotels with lazy rivers and kitchens, the aquarium, the seaside amusement park and an absurd supply of pirate-themed mini-golf mean a week passes easily with no planning.

West Palm is relaxed and easy with children too, and Lion Country Safari and the winter manatees at Manatee Lagoon are memorable. Its attractions are fewer and more spread out, though. In Myrtle Beach, spring break weeks and the rowdier oceanfront stretches at night are best avoided with young children.

Neither works well without a car, but West Palm Beach is easier. Its downtown is compact and walkable, with a free trolley along the waterfront. Fast trains reach Fort Lauderdale and Miami, and Palm Beach is close enough to cycle to over the bridges.

Myrtle Beach stretches along about 100km of multi-lane highway with few pavements. Visitors rarely use the buses, and summer traffic on Kings Highway is slow. Walking is pleasant only around the boardwalk or along the sand itself.

West Palm Beach is the better place to shop, mainly because of Worth Avenue. It has luxury houses, galleries and resale shops selling designer pieces from Palm Beach wardrobes. Over on the mainland, the furniture and lighting dealers of Antique Row are good for an afternoon's browsing.

Myrtle Beach is about bargains rather than style: two big outlet centres, huge beachwear shops full of inflatables, and the Market Common for a more town-like stroll. Its one real local craft is the sweetgrass baskets sold along the coast road to the south.

Myrtle Beach costs far less. Its vast stock of motels and condos with kitchens keeps rooms cheap outside the July peak. In West Palm, and above all on Palm Beach, hotels charge high rates from December to April, and restaurants are priced for a wealthy winter crowd.

In both places, tipping and a hire car add to every bill, and the season decides how much you pay. Myrtle Beach is cheapest in the cool months, West Palm in the hot, wet summer.

West Palm Beach has far more to offer in the evening. The Kravis Center hosts touring Broadway musicals, visiting orchestras, dance and the Palm Beach Opera, and Palm Beach Dramaworks stages serious plays on Clematis Street. The programme thins out in summer.

The stages in Myrtle Beach are given over to polished family variety: country and gospel revues, Christmas shows and dinner shows with knights or pirates. They are fun for a night, but there is no opera or drama to speak of.

Neither has a bathing tradition, but West Palm Beach is the more restful stay. The resort spas of Palm Beach, its quiet, manicured streets and the promenades along the lagoon suit slow days and early walks.

In summer the Myrtle Beach strip is loud and car-bound. You find the calm at Pawleys Island to the south or in spring and autumn, and the hotel and golf-resort spas provide most of the pampering.