Outer Banks or Siesta Key?

Both are beach destinations first, but the beaches are very different. The Outer Banks have well over 100 miles of Atlantic surf, with lifeguarded stretches at Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills and empty sand backed by dunes on the Hatteras seashore. Waves and rip currents mean swimming takes care, and the season is summer only.

Siesta Key offers the gentler swim. Siesta Beach has powder-fine white quartz sand and calm, shallow Gulf water, Point of Rocks has snorkelling, and Turtle Beach is the place to hunt for shells and shark teeth. The water stays swimmable for far more of the year, though an occasional red tide can spoil a day.

Neither is a food trip, and both run on simple seafood. The Outer Banks mean steamed shrimp, soft-shell crab and hushpuppies at dockside shacks, plus fish from the Wanchese and Hatteras harbours to cook in your rental. Siesta Key serves grouper sandwiches, fish tacos and, in winter, stone crab on open-air decks. Its advantage is Sarasota twenty minutes away, with a wider range of restaurants and a Saturday farmers' market.

The Outer Banks have more history of their own. There is the Wright Brothers memorial on the dunes where powered flight began in 1903, Fort Raleigh and the story of the Lost Colony on Roanoke Island, and a string of lighthouses ending with the spiral-striped Cape Hatteras. The catch is that the sights lie far apart along one long road.

Siesta Key itself has no museums, so for culture you cross to Sarasota and the Ringling, with its Rubens canvases, the Ca' d'Zan mansion and the circus museum. It is a rewarding day out, but it is a single cluster rather than a coastline of landmarks.

Neither keeps late hours, but Siesta Key has more of an evening. Siesta Village packs open-air bars with cover bands into a few walkable blocks, and it is busiest at spring break and on winter weekends. Downtown Sarasota adds cocktail bars and rooftops.

On the Outer Banks a night out means a brewery taproom or a deck bar along the bypass in Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills. There are almost no clubs, and most evenings end on the porch of the rental house.

The Outer Banks offer the wider range outdoors. You can take hang-gliding lessons on the dunes at Jockey's Ridge, see wild mustangs north of Corolla and watch bird migrations at Pea Island. The sounds around Rodanthe and Avon have some of the world's best flat-water kiteboarding and windsurfing, and there is surfing and serious offshore fishing too.

Siesta Key is gentler and more about wildlife. There are dolphins off the shore, manatees in the bays in the cooler months, kayaking through mangrove tunnels and alligators at Myakka River State Park inland. In summer the heat pushes all of it into the early morning.

Siesta Key sits on a better-connected coast. St Petersburg and its Dalí Museum are about an hour away, Tampa's Ybor City and the sponge docks of Tarpon Springs make a long day, and Anna Maria Island, Venice and Boca Grande are closer still.

From the Outer Banks, the best outing is the free ferry to Ocracoke, with its sandy lanes and small harbour. Beyond that, the colonial waterfront at Edenton and the museums of Norfolk are pleasant but modest.

Both suit families equally well, in different ways. The Outer Banks offer the classic week in a big rental house for several generations, with Jockey's Ridge, wild-horse tours, lighthouse climbs and the aquarium on Roanoke Island. Because of the surf, toddlers paddle on the calm sound side.

On Siesta Key the beach itself is the playground, with shallow water young children can wade far into and lifeguards and a playground at the main beach. There is less to do off the sand: Mote Marine aquarium is the main outing, and the theme parks are a long drive away.

Both need a car for anything beyond the beach, but the distances are very different. The Outer Banks stretch for a couple of hours' drive from Corolla to Hatteras village, bridge traffic jams on summer Saturdays, and Ocracoke can only be reached by ferry. Siesta Key is only about 13km long, with a walkable village and a free trolley along the island, so a beach-only stay can manage without a car, though the bridges to Sarasota clog in winter.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Siesta Key has better browsing within reach. On Lido Key, St Armands Circle rings a landscaped roundabout with boutiques and jewellers, and Sarasota's Main Street adds bookshops and galleries. On the Outer Banks it is mostly surf shops and souvenir stores along the highway. The craft galleries of Duck, Manteo and Ocracoke, with their local pottery and decoys, are the most interesting stops.

Both are expensive American resorts in their main season, so the real difference is when prices fall. The Outer Banks cost most in summer, just when the sea is warm, and a big group sharing a house and cooking fish from the docks makes the money go furthest. Siesta Key peaks from January to April, and summer is its cheaper season, though you pay in heat and storms.

Here Siesta Key is well ahead, thanks to Sarasota. It has an opera company in a restored 1920s opera house, the Asolo Repertory Theatre at the Ringling, ballet, a symphony orchestra and the Van Wezel hall for touring shows, mostly from autumn to spring. On the island itself, there is a Sunday sunset drum circle on the sand.

The Outer Banks have one real tradition, The Lost Colony, an outdoor drama staged on summer nights on Roanoke Island since 1937. Beyond that, there are mostly bands on bar decks.

Neither has a spa culture, but Siesta Key makes unwinding easier. It has warm, calm water, beach yoga, day spas on the island and in Sarasota, and quiet sand at Crescent and Turtle beaches. The Outer Banks offer a different kind of slowness: porch evenings and the empty villages of Hatteras Island and Ocracoke, best in late spring and autumn. There is much less to book in the way of treatments.