Palm Beach or Panama City Beach?

Both make an excellent beach trip, but in different ways. In Palm Beach the Atlantic is the draw: the Gulf Stream runs close to shore and keeps the sea clear, blue-green and swimmable right through the winter. The catch is space.

Much of the island's shore sits behind seawalls and private estates, some stretches narrow sharply at high tide, and for wider sand most visitors drive north to Singer Island or Jupiter.\n\nPanama City Beach is the other way round, with room to spare: about 43km of unbroken, fine white quartz sand along a shallow green Gulf, so you can spread out almost anywhere, even below the condo towers. The sheltered lagoon at St. Andrews and the undeveloped sands of Shell Island give quieter swims. Here the sea is for the warm months only, and rip currents make the warning flags worth taking seriously.

Palm Beach eats better and more widely. The island has formal French and Italian rooms, long terrace lunches and stone crab in season, and just over the bridge West Palm Beach adds Cuban bakeries, Caribbean takeaways and a waterfront green market.

Panama City Beach keeps things simple: fried or blackened grouper, shrimp baskets and bay oysters at dockside shacks, with chains and themed restaurants making up most of the strip. Neither town has a food tradition of its own, but only Palm Beach offers a proper dinner out.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Palm Beach has a real Gilded Age story to see: Henry Flagler's Whitehall, Addison Mizner's courtyards and vias on Worth Avenue, the estates along South Ocean Boulevard and, across the lagoon, the Norton Museum's American, European and Chinese collections.

Panama City Beach grew up after the mid-twentieth century as a strip of condos and attractions. The small Man in the Sea Museum and the older streets of St. Andrews across the bay are about all there is, so anyone after history will be driving out.

Neither is a place for late nights, but the evenings are very different. In Palm Beach it means a drink in a grand hotel bar on the island, or crossing to Clematis Street's bars and rooftop terraces and the cocktail bars around Rosemary Square, which feel more like a small city.

Panama City Beach drinks barefoot: decks over the sand, tiki huts at sunset and cover bands around Pier Park. It is easygoing in summer, loud with students during March spring break, and in winter many bars close for the season.

Palm Beach has a slight edge, mostly underwater. Divers seek out the reefs off the Gulf Stream and the shallow site under the Blue Heron Bridge, and inland the Loxahatchee refuge on the edge of the Everglades has alligators and wading birds. Manatees gather in winter, and the Lake Trail makes a shaded bike ride.

Panama City Beach is just as flat and life there centres on the water too: dolphin trips and paddling on St. Andrew Bay, wreck dives offshore, and the tall dunes of St. Andrews State Park. Its rare coastal dune lake at Camp Helen has no counterpart in Palm Beach.

Palm Beach has the bigger outing on its doorstep. Miami is about an hour away by fast train, with South Beach, Little Havana and Wynwood, and Delray Beach and Jupiter's lighthouse make easy half-days, even if the resort towns along the way look much alike.\n\nFrom Panama City Beach the best drive is along Scenic Highway 30A to the pastel planned towns of Seaside and Rosemary Beach. The old oyster port of Apalachicola has more history than the resort coast around Palm Beach. Every trip needs a car, though, and the nearest cities, Pensacola and Tallahassee, are both close to two hours away.

Panama City Beach is the more natural family choice, since that is who the town is built for. Shallow summer water, condos with pools, a large water park, a marine park with dolphin shows and mini-golf all along the strip keep children busy without much planning, as long as you avoid March.

Palm Beach is safe and calm, but its formal island suits adults better. The children's attractions are across the bridge: the zoo with its Florida panthers, the science centre, Manatee Lagoon in winter and the gentle water at Peanut Island.

Palm Beach is easier without a car, though not by much. The island core and downtown West Palm Beach can be walked, the free trolley loop and the flat Lake Trail cover short hops, and the fast train makes Miami simple. The zoo, wildlife reserves and northern beaches still mean driving or ride-hailing.

Panama City Beach is strung out along about 43km of beach road and highway, with patchy pavements and a slow, infrequent trolley-bus. A car is close to essential, and summer traffic on Front Beach Road can slow it to a crawl.

Palm Beach is far ahead here. Worth Avenue is a genuine luxury street, with major houses and small designers tucked into Mizner's courtyards, and the island's consignment shops sell designer pieces from wealthy local wardrobes. Antique Row in West Palm Beach adds a long stretch of furniture and art dealers.

Panama City Beach offers Pier Park's chain stores, surf shops and the shark-mouthed souvenir warehouses. For anything more individual, you have to drive to the boutiques of the 30A towns.

Panama City Beach is much the cheaper of the two. Condos with kitchens let families cook their own meals, and outside summer and spring break, rates fall sharply, especially for long winter stays. Meals, attractions and car hire still cost what they do at any American resort.

Palm Beach is among the most expensive resort towns in the country, from winter hotel rooms to beach parking. Staying in West Palm Beach, coming in the humid summer and leaning on free pleasures like the Lake Trail help, but it never becomes a budget trip.

Palm Beach has a real winter arts season. The Kravis Center brings touring Broadway shows, orchestras and ballet and hosts Palm Beach Opera, Palm Beach Dramaworks stages serious plays, and the Four Arts holds chamber concerts. Out of season the calendar thins a lot.

Panama City Beach has cover bands and acoustic sets on restaurant decks, plus a restored historic theatre across the bay in Panama City with a modest programme. It is pleasant background music, but nothing to plan a trip around.

Palm Beach is the better place to unwind. The island is quiet and manicured, and the big oceanfront resorts run large spas with salt-water pools and fitness programmes, though all of it comes at resort prices.

Panama City Beach has a handful of resort and day spas and the occasional yoga class on the sand. Its calm depends on the season: autumn-to-spring sunset walks on an empty beach are restful, but summer and spring break are anything but.