Orange Beach or West Palm Beach?

At Orange Beach the beach is the town. One long ribbon of fine white quartz sand runs past the condo towers, the Gulf water turns green and clear on calm days, and the gentle slope suits waders. Alabama Point and the state park beaches add some space away from the high-rises.

West Palm Beach has excellent beaches too, but they are a drive or bike ride across the bridges: Midtown Beach and Phipps Ocean Park on Palm Beach, Singer Island and Juno to the north, and Peanut Island's sheltered lagoon for snorkelling. Its real advantage is the Gulf Stream, which keeps the Atlantic swimmable in January, when the Gulf at Orange Beach is too cold for most people.

Neither place is a food destination, but West Palm Beach offers more variety. Orange Beach is about Gulf seafood eaten casually: Royal Red shrimp, oysters, local snapper and West Indies crab salad at fish houses on the back bays. Away from those, the main road offers mostly the same fried platters.

West Palm Beach covers more ground. There are waterfront terraces on Clematis Street, more local tables in Northwood, formal dining rooms on Palm Beach, stone crab in season, and Cuban and Haitian bakeries away from the centre. A winter green market by the water adds one more reason to eat out.

This is one of the sharpest contrasts between the two. Orange Beach grew from a fishing settlement into a line of condos and has only a small local museum. Its history, the forts and old towns of the coast, all lies elsewhere.

West Palm Beach has enough for two or three good days: the Norton Museum's American, European and Chinese collections, the Flagler Museum in Whitehall, which tells how the railway created this coast, and the brick sculptures of the Ann Norton gardens. Palm Beach's villas and the vias off Worth Avenue make a fine architectural walk.

Nightlife is modest in both, and West Palm Beach has a little more of it. Going out in Orange Beach means beach bars and waterfront decks, above all the ramshackle Flora-Bama roadhouse on the state line, loudest during spring break and in summer. Getting from one place to the next takes a car.

In West Palm Beach a few walkable blocks of Clematis Street and Rosemary Square have cocktail bars, rooftop terraces and a couple of dance spots, busiest at weekends in the winter season. Palm Beach itself goes to bed early, and for real clubbing people head to Miami.

The outdoors are equally good in both, but the time is spent in different ways. Orange Beach suits anglers and cyclists. It is a major charter fishing port, a long paved trail runs through pine woods past alligator ponds, the back bays suit kayaks, and Bon Secour refuge is a draw for birders during the migrations.

West Palm Beach is better under the water. The shallow shore dive beneath the Blue Heron Bridge is famous for seahorses and octopus, and Gulf Stream reefs are a short boat ride away. On land, Grassy Waters and the Loxahatchee refuge give a taste of the Everglades, and Juno's beaches are sea turtle nesting grounds.

There is little to choose between them on day trips; the difference is in what you get. From Orange Beach the outings are about Southern history: Pensacola's Spanish quarter, its naval aviation museum and brick forts, Mobile's antebellum streets and battleship, and the ferry to Dauphin Island. Every one of them needs a car.

West Palm Beach has one big change of scene in Miami, about an hour away on the fast train, with South Beach, Little Havana and Wynwood. Its other outings are mostly more coastal towns, such as Delray Beach with the Morikami gardens, Mizner's Boca Raton and Jupiter's red lighthouse.

Orange Beach is the easier family base, because the whole town is set up for it. Condos have pools and kitchens, the shallow water is just outside, and dolphin boats, a marina Ferris wheel, mini golf, a water park, a zoo and a small theme park are all close by.

West Palm Beach works well too, with Lion Country Safari, the zoo, the science centre and aquarium, and manatees at the free Manatee Lagoon in winter. The difference is distance: the beaches are across the lagoon and there is no big theme park. In winter, though, its warm sea gives it the edge for swimming children.

At Orange Beach you need a car for almost everything. The town stretches for miles along one highway with little public transport, and summer traffic slows to a crawl. Bikes help only on the trails.

West Palm Beach is easier. Its downtown is compact and walkable, a free trolley links the waterfront with Clematis Street and Rosemary Square, and trains run to Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Beyond the centre a car or ride-hailing is still the norm, but a stay without a car is at least possible.

Shopping at Orange Beach covers swimwear, souvenirs and fishing tackle, and the outlet mall at Foley, about twenty minutes inland, is the only serious stop.

West Palm Beach is a real shopping destination because of Worth Avenue, where palm-lined luxury houses, galleries and tiled vias are worth walking even if you buy nothing. Consignment shops sell the island's designer cast-offs, Antique Row on South Dixie Highway makes a good afternoon, and Rosemary Square covers the mainstream brands.

Neither is cheap, since both charge American resort prices plus tips and a hire car, but Orange Beach costs less. Its summer rates are high, yet groups sharing a big condo with a kitchen keep costs down, and from late autumn to early spring prices fall sharply.

West Palm Beach is at its most expensive in winter, which is also its best weather, and Palm Beach hotels are among the dearest on the coast. Rates drop in summer, but only in return for heat and storms. At both, the cheap months are the ones when the beach is at its weakest.

West Palm Beach has a proper arts calendar, which Orange Beach lacks. The Kravis Center brings touring Broadway shows, visiting orchestras, dance and the Palm Beach Opera, Dramaworks stages serious plays on Clematis Street, and the Society of the Four Arts adds concerts. Most of it runs from late autumn to spring.

Orange Beach is about touring country and rock acts at the marina amphitheatre and bar bands in season. Its one standout is November's Frank Brown songwriters' festival around the state line.

West Palm Beach is better for an unhurried stay. Large oceanfront resort spas line Palm Beach, smaller day spas are everywhere, and the manicured quiet of the island and the promenades along the lagoon suit slow mornings and evening walks.

Orange Beach has only a few resort and day spas. What it offers instead is empty space out of season, with long mornings and sunsets over the back bays. Spring break and summer weekends are too noisy for real rest there.