Palm Beach or Sarasota?

Both are strong beach towns, but the beaches are very different. Palm Beach faces the Atlantic, where the nearby Gulf Stream keeps the water clear and warm all year. The public sand on the island itself is limited to the Municipal Beach and Phipps Ocean Park, though, because much of the shore sits behind seawalls and narrows at high tide, so the wider beaches mean a short drive to Singer Island, Jupiter or Delray.

Sarasota's beaches are better in themselves: Siesta Key's fine, cool quartz sand runs into calm, shallow Gulf water with no real waves, and Lido Key is close to downtown. The trade-off is a much cooler sea in midwinter and occasional red tide, so it is worth checking conditions before a beach day.

Neither town is a reason to travel for food, and the difference is one of style. Palm Beach eats formally, with Italian and French dining rooms, long terrace lunches off Worth Avenue and strict dress codes. Its variety comes from across the bridge, in the Cuban bakeries, Caribbean takeaways and waterfront green market of West Palm Beach.

Sarasota is more casual, with grouper sandwiches at fish shacks on the keys, bistros on Main Street and St Armands Circle, and one real oddity in Pinecraft's Amish and Mennonite family restaurants, known for their pie.

Each town has one essential visit built on a single rich man's legacy. In Palm Beach it is Henry Flagler's marble Whitehall, along with the Mizner Mediterranean Revival style of Worth Avenue and the estates on South Ocean Boulevard. Across the lagoon, the Norton Museum of Art adds a good American, European and Chinese collection.

In Sarasota it is the Ringling, with Rubens canvases, the Venetian Gothic Ca' d'Zan and the circus museum, which together take a full day. After that the city's interest is mid-century modernist houses of the Sarasota School, which suit architecture enthusiasts more than general sightseers.

Both are early-to-bed resorts, and neither is a place for a big night out. Palm Beach's island goes quiet after a hotel-bar nightcap, but Clematis Street in West Palm Beach has rooftop bars and a couple of dance spots that fill with a younger crowd at weekends.

Sarasota's evenings centre on sunset drinks at the open-air bars of Siesta Key Village and wine bars on Main Street, with an older crowd, and anyone after a club has to drive to Tampa.

The outdoors are about even, but the best of each is in a different place. Palm Beach is best underwater, with reefs close offshore and the shallow dive under the Blue Heron Bridge, known for seahorses and octopus. On land there is the Lake Trail by bike and the Loxahatchee boardwalks at the edge of the Everglades.

Sarasota is a wildlife-watching place above the surface. Myakka River State Park has prairies, a treetop canopy walk and alligators, the mangrove tunnels off Lido Key make a good kayak trip, and dolphins are common in the bay.

The day-trip options are much the same in number but different in character. Palm Beach has the bigger single outing, since the fast train reaches Miami's South Beach, Little Havana and Wynwood in about an hour without a car. Closer by, though, the stops are mostly resort towns that resemble one another.

Sarasota's options are less glamorous but more varied: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg across the Sunshine Skyway, Tampa's Cuban cigar district of Ybor City, the Greek sponge docks at Tarpon Springs and the Edison and Ford winter estates at Fort Myers.

Sarasota is the better family base. The Gulf off Siesta Key and Lido Key is as gentle as a beach gets for toddlers, Mote Marine Laboratory brings children close to sharks and manatees, and vacation rentals with pools are easy to find.

Palm Beach's island is built for adults, with formal restaurants where children can feel out of place, so family days mean crossing to the zoo, the science centre, Manatee Lagoon or the drive-through safari park. Peanut Island's shallow lagoon is its best spot for small swimmers.

Both are car country, and a hire car is close to essential in either. Palm Beach has the more pleasant short hops: the flat Lake Trail by bike, a free trolley around downtown West Palm Beach, and the fast train for Miami.

In Sarasota, the downtown area, St Armands and Siesta Key Village each work on foot, and a trolley runs along Siesta Key. Traffic on the bridges to the keys can back up badly in winter.

For shopping, Palm Beach is far ahead. Worth Avenue is a genuine luxury street of major fashion houses and jewellers in palm-shaded vias, the consignment shops sell designer pieces from wealthy wardrobes, and Antique Row in West Palm Beach is a serious hunt for furniture and decorative arts.

Sarasota's St Armands Circle and Main Street are pleasant for an afternoon of resort wear, galleries and gifts, but they have nothing at that level.

Neither is cheap, but Sarasota is noticeably easier on the wallet. Palm Beach ranks among the costliest resort towns in the country, with hotels, restaurants and even beach parking priced for a wealthy clientele, so most visitors on a budget sleep in West Palm Beach and drive over.

In Sarasota the expensive part is the keys in winter. A mainland base, free public beaches and low state-park fees keep a stay reasonable, especially in summer.

Sarasota has much the deeper stage for a town its size. It has its own opera in a restored 1920s theatre, a ballet company known for its Ashton repertoire, a full orchestral season and the Asolo Repertory Theatre on the Ringling grounds.

Palm Beach relies mostly on the Kravis Center for touring musicals and visiting orchestras, along with a short opera season and Dramaworks' serious plays. In both towns the arts calendar runs through winter and thins out in summer.

Palm Beach is the more restful place to unwind. The island is quiet and slow outside high season, and its large oceanfront resorts have polished spas, salt-water pools and fitness programmes that can carry a whole stay.

Sarasota's spas on Longboat Key and Lido Key are smaller, and winter traffic can disturb the calm. It does have something Palm Beach lacks in Warm Mineral Springs, a spring-fed pool that stays warm all year, about forty minutes south.