Orange Beach or St. Pete Beach?

Both towns are built on the same kind of beach: fine white quartz sand along the Gulf, with very warm water from late spring to autumn. Neither has the edge. The differences are in the water and in the setting.

At Orange Beach the beach is backed by low dunes and condo towers. The sea can turn green and clear, and rip currents are a real hazard, so the warning flags matter. For more space, head to Alabama Point or the state park. St. Pete Beach has calmer, shallower water with little surf. Pass-a-Grille faces west into the sunset, and Fort De Soto and the undeveloped sands of Shell Key give you emptier beaches nearby, though red tide can now and then spoil the water.

Seafood eaten casually by the water is the whole story in both towns, so the difference is in the local specialities. At Orange Beach that means sweet deep-water Royal Reds, oysters raw or chargrilled and the crab-meat West Indies salad of the Alabama coast, served at fish houses on the back bays and around the marina. Many of the fried platters along the main road look much alike.

St. Pete Beach has grouper sandwiches, smoked fish spread and stone crab claws in season, and Pass-a-Grille and Corey Avenue have a few quieter sit-down places. When you want more, the mainland city across the causeways has the craft breweries, coffee roasters and more ambitious kitchens that the island lacks.

Neither is a sightseeing destination, but St. Pete Beach has more to offer. The pink Don CeSar hotel and the old beach cottages of Pass-a-Grille's historic district give the town some character of its own. The Spanish-American War batteries at Fort De Soto are close by.

Orange Beach grew from a fishing settlement into a strip of high-rises. Beyond a small museum of Native American and fishing history there is little to see, and the forts and old towns of the coast all take a day out.

At Orange Beach a late night usually means the Flora-Bama, the sprawling roadhouse on the Alabama-Florida line, where summer weekend crowds stay on long after dark. A few bars around the marina and Perdido Pass also fill up on warm evenings. Outside the season things are quiet, and you need a car or a taxi to get from one place to the next.

St. Pete Beach is at its liveliest around sunset, with cover bands on the tiki decks along Gulf Boulevard, and most people call it a night soon after. Neither town has clubs. If you want dancing or an evening moving between city bars, downtown St. Petersburg is a half-hour drive.

Both have the same flat coastal country, and the outdoors is mostly on the water. The balance is close. Orange Beach has more to do on land and offshore. A long paved trail runs through pine woods and past alligator ponds into Gulf State Park, artificial reefs draw anglers and divers, and Bon Secour refuge is busy with birds during the migrations.

St. Pete Beach is a place of mangroves and seagrass. You can paddle the kayak trails at Fort De Soto and Shell Key, watch roseate spoonbills, and see manatees, which come into Tampa Bay in the cooler months.

St. Pete Beach has the better range of outings, and they come in a wider spread. St. Petersburg's waterfront and Dalí Museum are half an hour away, and Ybor City in Tampa takes under an hour. You can also reach the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs, Sarasota's Ringling estate across the Sunshine Skyway, and, at a stretch, Orlando.

Orange Beach has a solid list too. Pensacola has its colonial quarter, naval aviation museum and brick forts, and Mobile has antebellum streets and the oldest Mardi Gras in the country. Fort Morgan and the ferry to Dauphin Island are closer still. Nothing on the list matches the cities you can reach from Florida's west coast.

Both are easy places with children, and neither has a real advantage. Orange Beach is built around the family condo with a kitchen, and has a Ferris wheel by the marina, mini golf, and a water park and small zoo within half an hour. St. Pete Beach has calmer, shallower water for toddlers and shelling on Shell Key. Its bigger draws, Clearwater's marine aquarium and Busch Gardens, are about an hour away. In both, the summer heat sets the rhythm of the day, and at Orange Beach you need to keep a closer eye on children in the surf.

Neither works well without a car, but St. Pete Beach is less of a struggle. A beach trolley runs the length of Gulf Boulevard, and Pass-a-Grille and Corey Avenue are compact enough to walk or cycle.

Orange Beach is strung out for miles along one highway with almost no useful public transport. You'll drive to dinner, the shops and the beach access, and in summer that highway slows to a crawl. The paved trails are the one place a bicycle comes into its own.

Neither is worth the trip for shopping, and most of what both sell is swimwear and souvenirs. The difference is in what else you can find. From Orange Beach, the large outlet mall in Foley is twenty minutes inland for discounted brands. St. Pete Beach has no mall, but Corey Avenue's independent boutiques and the small galleries and craft shops of Pass-a-Grille have more local character.

Both are priced like American beach resorts. Orange Beach is somewhat kinder to the wallet, mainly because big shared condos with kitchens bring the cost down for groups, and because winter rates fall sharply.

At St. Pete Beach the costs are highest from February to April, when the mild weather draws northern visitors. Savings mean an older motel a block back from the sand or a visit in late summer.

Orange Beach has more live music in town. Its marina amphitheatre hosts country, rock and pop tours through the warm months, and every November the Frank Brown songwriters' festival fills the stages around the state line. In town, St. Pete Beach offers cover bands and acoustic sets at the beach bars. For theatre or the Florida Orchestra's season you'll drive to St. Petersburg, or to Tampa for touring musicals and opera.

At Orange Beach the calm depends on the season. Once the summer crowds thin out, you can have the long mornings and the sunsets over the back bays almost to yourself. That quiet comes in the cooler, greyer months, though, and the noise returns with the warm weather.

St. Pete Beach is the easier place to slow down, because the calm is part of every day rather than something you wait for. Most evenings people stop on the sand to watch the sun go down over the Gulf. Apart from the spring-break weeks, that easy pace lasts through most of the year, and it is there in the mild winter as well.