Naples, Florida or St. Augustine?

Naples has the better beach, and you can walk to it. Fine pale sand runs the length of the town, with public paths at the ends of the Old Naples streets, calm and clear Gulf water, and a crowd that gathers to watch the sun set over the sea. Further north, Clam Pass and Barefoot Beach add mangroves and wild dunes.

St. Augustine's sand is just as wide and pale, but it lies across the Bridge of Lions on Anastasia Island, a short drive from the old town. The Atlantic there is greener and choppier, with easy surf, and it is really a summer beach. In winter people walk along it, while in Naples they still wade in.

Neither town is worth the journey for food alone, and both rely on seafood. Naples is slightly better for a polished evening, with white-tablecloth dining rooms on Fifth Avenue South, stone crab claws in the cooler months and grouper sandwiches at the dockside fish houses around Tin City.

St. Augustine is more casual but tastes more of its place. Fried shrimp and oysters come from waterfront shacks on the marsh creeks, and the fiery Minorcan datil pepper flavours its clam chowder and pilau, though the restaurants on St. George Street mostly cater to passing tourists.

This is where the two differ most. St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish in 1565, and its coquina-built Castillo de San Marcos, the balconied lanes of the Spanish quarter and the old city gate make it a real historic town. A second layer comes from Flagler's Gilded Age, with the Tiffany glass of Flagler College and the Lightner Museum in the former Alcazar Hotel.

Naples is a young resort, and you will see it all in a day. The Baker Museum's modern and American art, the historic racing cars at the Revs Institute and Palm Cottage are worth seeing, but most of the town's appeal lies outdoors.

Neither suits a late night out, but St. Augustine has more going on after dinner. Courtyard pubs, taverns and cocktail bars cluster around St. George Street and the bayfront, weekends bring a lively crowd of visitors, and Flagler College students add some life in term time.

Naples winds down earlier and more quietly. Its evenings mean a piano lounge or wine bar on Fifth Avenue South, or a tiki bar at sunset, with an older crowd. In summer it is very quiet indeed.

Naples is far the better base for wildlife. Within an hour you reach Big Cypress, the western Everglades, the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp and the orchids of the Fakahatchee Strand, with alligators, manatees and wading birds. Kayaking through the Ten Thousand Islands is the best outing on either coast.

St. Augustine's outdoors are gentler: salt marsh, dunes, the lagoon in Anastasia State Park, birding walks in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve, and a coastal road that is good for cycling. Both landscapes are flat, and both are best outside the summer.

The two are fairly even here. Both need a car, and neither has an outstanding list. From Naples, the outings follow the Gulf coast: shelling and cycling on Sanibel and Captiva, the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, Everglades City, and the Ringling museums in Sarasota at the far end of a day.

St. Augustine has bigger attractions within reach. Kennedy Space Center and the Orlando parks are each about two hours away, and Daytona's speedway, the Victorian port of Fernandina Beach and the museums of Jacksonville make shorter trips.

Both are easy with children, but in different ways. Naples is a beach-first family place: shallow, calm water, shells and dolphins seen from the shore, a boat tour past the primate islands at Naples Zoo, and a children's museum for the under-tens.

St. Augustine combines history with animals. Children get the Alligator Farm and its zipline, cannon firing on the ramparts of the Castillo, and the lighthouse climb. Orlando's parks are also much closer, about two hours away compared with more than three from Naples.

St. Augustine is the easier of the two to see on foot. The fort, St. George Street, Flagler College and the bayfront are minutes apart, and sightseeing trolleys loop past the main sights, so most visitors park once and walk. You still need to drive, cycle or take a taxi to reach the beaches.

In Naples, the walkable part is the small grid of Old Naples around Fifth Avenue South and the pier, with the beach close by. Everything else lies along long, wide roads with thin bus services, and the northern beaches, the Everglades and every day trip need a car.

Naples is the better place to shop, especially for clothes. Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South have resort-wear boutiques, jewellers and galleries, an open-air luxury mall gathers the designer labels, and there are large outlet malls half an hour north.

St. George Street in St. Augustine sells mostly fudge, T-shirts and pirate souvenirs. The galleries, antique dealers and craft shops around Aviles Street are more rewarding, and a bottle of datil-pepper sauce makes a better gift than anything in Tin City.

Neither is cheap, but Naples costs noticeably more. Beachfront resorts charge premium rates through the winter season, restaurants are priced for a wealthy clientele, and a rental car is close to essential. Summer brings much lower prices, but also heat and storms.

In St. Augustine, the historic inns charge steep rates at weekends and in peak season, but otherwise prices are normal for an American tourist town. Staying in or near the walkable old town can also save on car hire for much of the trip. The best savings come midweek, outside spring and summer.

Both have a modest stage scene, but of very different kinds. Naples leans towards classical music and theatre: the Naples Philharmonic plays in its own hall, touring Broadway shows come through, and there is a professional theatre company. Almost all of this happens between late autumn and spring.

St. Augustine's main venue is the open-air Amphitheatre in the woods on Anastasia Island, which hosts touring rock, country and folk acts for much of the year, while acoustic sets play nightly on the old-town patios. For orchestral music or serious drama, you would go to Jacksonville.

The difference is mostly one of scale. Naples has large beachfront resorts with full spas, pools and fitness classes open to non-guests, and with golf, long walks along the Gulf and a population largely there to rest, the whole town runs at a slow pace.

St. Augustine offers a smaller, quieter kind of calm: a veranda or courtyard garden at an old-town B&B, and an evening stroll along the bayfront seawall. Spa treatments are limited to hotel treatment rooms and a few day spas. Neither town has thermal springs or a bathing tradition.