Palm Beach or Savannah?

Palm Beach is the beach destination of the two. The Atlantic is right on the island, clear and blue-green from the Gulf Stream and warm enough for swimming in midwinter, and wider sand at Singer Island, Jupiter or Delray is a short drive away. The catch is that much of the island's own shore is private or narrow at high tide.

Savannah has no beach of its own. Tybee Island, about half an hour east, has wide, flat sand that suits walks and paddling children, but the water is coloured by the marshes and only warm from early summer to early autumn. Treat it as one day out, not the reason to come.

Savannah eats with more sense of place. Shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Lowcountry boils, fire-roasted oysters in the cooler months and family-style dining rooms give it a cooking tradition worth travelling for, with a small group of chef-led restaurants in old townhouses on top.

Palm Beach cooks well but without a local identity: formal Italian and French rooms, terrace lunches off Worth Avenue and stone crab in season, with dress codes to match. The Cuban bakeries and the green market in West Palm Beach add variety, but meals there are more about the setting than the food itself.

Savannah is the richer place for sightseeing because the city itself is the sight. Oglethorpe's grid of garden squares, the Federal and Greek Revival houses, Factors Walk and Bonaventure Cemetery fill days of walking, and the Telfair Museums and the Owens-Thomas House give that setting depth and an honest history.

Palm Beach's heritage is narrower: the Gilded Age wealth of Flagler's Whitehall, Mizner's Mediterranean Revival vias and the estates along South Ocean Boulevard, plus the Norton Museum's strong collection across the lagoon. It is worth seeing, but it takes two or three days at most.

Savannah is the livelier place for an evening out. Drinks in to-go cups let a night wander from River Street's cobbled bars to City Market taverns and quiet cocktail rooms, and art students keep a few dive bars busy. Weekends can get loud, and St Patrick's Day is a huge street party.

On Palm Beach the evening usually means dinner, a hotel bar and bed, since the real social life happens in private clubs. Going out means crossing to Clematis Street and Rosemary Square in West Palm Beach, which are fine for a night or two.

Palm Beach has the better outdoors, mainly because of what lies underwater. Reefs run close offshore and the Blue Heron Bridge site is famous among divers for seahorses and octopus. On land there is the Lake Trail by bike, Loxahatchee's alligators at the edge of the Everglades, and manatees or nesting turtles depending on the season.

Savannah's nature is the Lowcountry salt marsh, best seen by kayak at high tide or on a dolphin-spotting boat, with gentler walks at Wormsloe and Skidaway Island. It is lovely in spring and autumn, but summer heat and biting insects make it hard work from June to September.

The two are broadly level here, but the trips are different in kind. From Palm Beach, the outings are to more beach towns, with Miami the standout, easy by fast train for South Beach's Art Deco and Little Havana. Closer at hand, Delray, Boca Raton and Jupiter feel much alike.

Savannah's trips have more history: Charleston's peninsula two hours north, antebellum Beaufort, Fort Pulaski and Jekyll Island's millionaires' district, with Hilton Head for a resort day. You will need a car for almost all of them.

Palm Beach is the easier choice with children, as long as you base yourselves across the bridge. The zoo, the science centre and aquarium, Manatee Lagoon and the drive-through safari park give plenty of options, and Peanut Island's shallow lagoon is ideal for small swimmers. The island itself, with its formal restaurants, suits adults better.

Savannah works for families but has no zoo, aquarium or theme park. Its treats are smaller: trolley tours, the free river ferry, ghost walks for older children, the Girl Scouts founder's birthplace and Tybee's sea-turtle centre.

Savannah is far easier without a car. The historic district is flat and compact, and hotels, restaurants and sights sit within a few shaded blocks, with a free shuttle and the river ferry covering the gaps. Only Tybee, Wormsloe and Bonaventure need wheels.

Palm Beach has a pleasant walkable core around Worth Avenue and a fine cycling route on the Lake Trail, but the beaches, zoo and wildlife reserves are spread out and the buses are slow, so most visitors rent a car. The fast train to Miami is the one real exception.

Palm Beach is a genuine shopping destination. Worth Avenue gathers the major luxury houses and jewellers among Mizner's courtyards, the consignment shops sell designer clothes from wealthy local wardrobes, and Antique Row in West Palm Beach is a long run of serious dealers.

Savannah offers a gentler browse along Broughton Street's restored storefronts, with work by art-school students, bookshops and antiques around the squares. Beyond that, River Street and City Market mostly sell pralines and souvenirs.

Neither is cheap, but Savannah is noticeably easier on the budget. Historic-district inns cost more on spring weekends, yet the squares, Forsyth Park and the cemeteries are free, and a midweek summer stay brings costs down.

Palm Beach is among the most expensive resort towns in the country, from winter hotel rooms to restaurants and even beach parking. The usual way round it is to stay in West Palm Beach or come in the humid summer, and to enjoy the free pleasures: the sand and the Lake Trail.

The two are much alike in how much they offer, but their seasons differ. Palm Beach's comes in winter, when the Kravis Center hosts touring Broadway, orchestras and Palm Beach Opera, and Dramaworks and the Four Arts add plays and chamber concerts. From late spring onwards it goes quiet.

Savannah's high point is the spring Savannah Music Festival, where jazz, blues, Americana and chamber music fill historic theatres and churches, with an autumn jazz festival in Forsyth Park. Between festivals there is not much to see.

Palm Beach is better for a restful stay with treatments. The big oceanfront resorts have large spas and salt-water pools, and the quiet island, early sea swims and beach yoga make it easy to slow down, though nothing about it is communal or cheap.

Savannah's calm comes from its pace rather than its spas: a bench under the oaks or the courtyard of an old inn on a southern square. River Street weekends and the summer humidity can undo that, so come midweek in spring or autumn.