Orange Beach or Palm Beach?

Both are serious beach destinations, but the beaches are not alike. Orange Beach has a single wide run of white quartz sand on the Gulf, right in front of where you stay, with low dunes behind it and calm, shallow water that suits children. Watch the rip-current flags, and expect the sea to cool well below swimming comfort in winter.

Palm Beach's strength is the water rather than the sand. The Gulf Stream keeps the Atlantic clear and warm all year. In town, though, the public beaches are limited, and much of the shore sits behind seawalls and estates. For broad sand you drive to Singer Island or Juno Beach, and Peanut Island's shallow lagoon adds snorkelling that the Gulf shore cannot match.

Palm Beach offers more range, though neither is a food destination. Orange Beach is about casual Gulf seafood: Royal Red shrimp, oysters, West Indies salad and snapper eaten at back-bay fish houses. Away from a few good dinners, much of what lines the main road is the same fried platter.

Palm Beach dines formally, with French and Italian rooms, terrace lunches off Worth Avenue and stone crab in season. Across the bridge, West Palm Beach adds Cuban bakeries, Caribbean takeaways and a weekend green market, a mix Orange Beach simply lacks.

Orange Beach has enough culture for one rainy afternoon at most. Its story is that of a fishing village that became a resort, told in a single small local museum. There is no old centre to wander and no grand building to tour, so anyone curious about the coast's past has to drive out to find it.

In Palm Beach the town itself is the thing to see. The fortunes that followed Flagler's railway down the coast built mansions, churches and shopping arcades in a borrowed Spanish and Italian style, and a slow bike ride past the ocean-front estates on South Ocean Boulevard shows you as much as any tour. Whitehall tells how it all began, and the Society of the Four Arts gardens and Ann Norton's sculpture garden make quieter stops. That fills a few unhurried days, though not a week.

Neither is a big night out, but the evenings feel very different. Orange Beach goes barefoot: the Flora-Bama roadhouse on the state line, with sand underfoot and a late crowd on summer weekends, plus beach bars by the marina and Perdido Pass. It gets loud around spring break and is quiet in the off-season.

Palm Beach island is in bed by eleven after a hotel-bar nightcap. For anything livelier you cross to West Palm Beach, where Clematis Street has rooftop terraces and a couple of dance spots, and Rosemary Square adds cocktail bars, an urban option Orange Beach does not have.

Orange Beach is at its best above the water. A paved backcountry trail winds through pine woods past alligator ponds into Gulf State Park, the back bays suit kayaks and paddleboards, and the town is one of the Gulf's busiest charter fishing ports. Bon Secour refuge adds birding during the spring and autumn migrations.

Palm Beach is strongest below the surface. Reefs run close along the Gulf Stream, and the shallow dive under the Blue Heron Bridge is famous for seahorses and octopus. On land, Loxahatchee's boardwalks on the edge of the Everglades bring alligators and wading birds, with manatees in winter and nesting sea turtles in summer.

The two are fairly evenly matched, with different kinds of outing. From Orange Beach the trips lean towards history: Pensacola's Spanish quarter, naval aviation museum and brick forts, Mobile's antebellum streets and battleship, and the ferry to Dauphin Island. All of them need a car.

Palm Beach has the bigger prize in Miami, an easy run by fast train to South Beach, Little Havana and Wynwood. Closer in, Delray Beach, Boca Raton and Jupiter's lighthouse are pleasant, but they are resort towns much like Palm Beach itself, with little older heritage.

Orange Beach is the more natural fit for children. The whole town is built around family stays, with pool condos, sandcastle beaches, dolphin cruises, mini golf and a Ferris wheel. A water park and a small zoo are within half an hour. Plan around the summer heat and the rip currents.

Palm Beach is safe and calm, but the island is made for adults, and children can feel out of place in its formal restaurants. The good family days are over the bridge, at the zoo, the science centre and aquarium and Manatee Lagoon, with Peanut Island's shallows for small swimmers.

You will want a car in both, but Palm Beach gives you more ways round it. Orange Beach is strung along one coastal highway that clogs in summer, with almost no public transport, so even dinner means driving, though the paved trails suit bikes.

In Palm Beach you can walk the Worth Avenue core, cycle the flat Lake Trail and ride downtown West Palm Beach's free trolley. The fast train to Fort Lauderdale and Miami makes the biggest day trip possible without a car.

Palm Beach is a real shopping destination, and Orange Beach is not. Worth Avenue gathers the luxury houses and smaller designers in Mizner's palm-shaded vias, the consignment shops resell designer pieces from wealthy local wardrobes, and Antique Row in West Palm Beach is a long strip of art and furniture dealers.

At Orange Beach shopping means swimwear, souvenirs and fishing gear along the main road, with brand bargains at the Foley outlet mall twenty minutes inland.

Orange Beach is clearly the cheaper of the two, and the cheap seasons fall at opposite ends of the year. Orange Beach charges standard American resort rates in summer, then drops sharply from late autumn to early spring, when the Gulf is too cool for most swimmers but the town is good value for a quiet stay. Families and groups save more by sharing one large condo and cooking some of their meals.

Palm Beach is dearest in winter, just when its warm sea is the main attraction, and rates fall only in the hot, humid summer. The usual saving is to sleep off the island, in West Palm Beach or further along the coast, and drive over. Orange Beach never forces that trade, since its condos stand on the sand itself.

Palm Beach has the fuller stage, at least in winter. The Kravis Center brings touring musicals, orchestras and ballet and is home to Palm Beach Opera. Palm Beach Dramaworks puts on serious plays, and the Society of the Four Arts hosts chamber concerts. Out of season, the programme thins sharply.

Orange Beach is about popular music: country and rock tours at the marina amphitheatre, cover bands in beach bars and, each November, the Frank Brown International Songwriters' Festival around the state line. It has no theatre or classical music.

Palm Beach is better set up for a restful stay. The large oceanfront resorts run polished spas with salt-water pools and fitness programmes, beach yoga and early sea swims are easy to arrange, and the manicured island stays quiet. Expect to pay resort prices for all of it.

Orange Beach has a few day spas but no real spa scene. Its calm comes from slow mornings and sunsets over the back bays, and it is only reliable outside summer weekends and spring break.