Palm Beach or St. Pete Beach?

These are two excellent beach towns, but the sea and sand feel very different. Palm Beach faces the Atlantic, and the nearby Gulf Stream keeps the water clear, blue-green and warm even in winter. The catch is access. Seawalls and private estates take up much of the shore, so the public beaches are mostly the Municipal Beach and Phipps Ocean Park, and some stretches nearly vanish at high tide.

St. Pete Beach is one long, open run of fine pale quartz sand beside calm, shallow Gulf water with little surf. You can choose between Pass-a-Grille's wide sunset-facing sand, quiet Upham Beach and the wilder beaches of Fort De Soto and Shell Key. Come between May and October to swim, though, because the winter Gulf is noticeably cooler than Palm Beach's Atlantic.

Palm Beach eats better, though neither town is a food destination. Both cook the same local fish, grouper, with stone crab in season, but the way you eat it is very different. On Palm Beach island, dining is formal and polished: French and Italian rooms, long lunches on terraces off Worth Avenue and a dress code to match. Across the bridge, West Palm Beach adds Cuban bakeries, Caribbean takeaways and a weekend green market.

In St. Pete Beach you eat in flip-flops. Grouper comes in a sandwich at a shack or grill by the water, along with fried shrimp and smoked fish spread, and dinner on a deck at sunset is the local habit. Chain restaurants fill much of Gulf Boulevard, so for anything more ambitious you have to drive into St. Petersburg.

Palm Beach has far more to see. Henry Flagler's marble Whitehall, now the Flagler Museum, is a serious historic house. Addison Mizner's Mediterranean Revival courtyards, the vias off Worth Avenue and Bethesda-by-the-Sea give the town its look, and the Norton Museum of Art is just across the lagoon. That is two or three good days of sightseeing.

In St. Pete Beach, the sights come down to the pink Don CeSar hotel, Pass-a-Grille's old cottages with a small history museum, and the old gun batteries at Fort De Soto. For real museums, such as the Dalí, you have to make the trip into St. Petersburg.

Both are early-to-bed places. On Palm Beach island, an evening is dinner and a drink in a grand hotel bar, and the streets are quiet by eleven. Its advantage is that West Palm Beach is just over the bridge. There, Clematis Street's bars and a couple of dance spots, plus the cocktail bars around Rosemary Square, give you a proper night out at weekends.

St. Pete Beach's evenings happen at the beach itself: tiki decks and beach bars with cover bands as the sun goes down, then a quiet night. There are no clubs, and a bigger night out means half an hour's drive to downtown St. Petersburg.

The two are well matched outdoors, but you spend that time in different places. Palm Beach is the place to go underwater. Reefs lie close to shore along the Gulf Stream, and the shallow dive under the Blue Heron Bridge is known for seahorses and octopus. On land, the Loxahatchee refuge on the edge of the Everglades has alligators along its boardwalks.

St. Pete Beach's nature is on the surface of the water. You can paddle the mangrove trails at Fort De Soto and Shell Key, spot dolphins from boats, and watch roseate spoonbills and pelicans on the seagrass flats. Manatees come close in winter on both coasts.

The two are about level for days out, but the options are quite different. From Palm Beach the big outing is Miami, an easy ride on the fast train, for South Beach, Little Havana and Wynwood. Closer by, the coast is a chain of fairly similar resort towns such as Delray Beach and Boca Raton.

St. Pete Beach has a wider spread within an hour or two by car. You can choose from the Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Ybor City's cigar-factory streets in Tampa, the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs and the Ringling estate across the Sunshine Skyway. Orlando's theme parks are possible on a long day.

St. Pete Beach is the easier family base. Shallow, calm water and soft sand are right outside hotels that often have their own pools. Dolphin boats, shelling on Shell Key and the fishing pier at Fort De Soto fill the gaps between swims, and aquariums and Busch Gardens are within an hour.

Palm Beach is safe and calm, but the island itself, with its formal restaurants and boutiques, is built for adults. The children's outings are mostly across the bridge: the zoo, the science centre and aquarium, and Manatee Lagoon in winter. Peanut Island's shallow lagoon is the best place for small swimmers.

Plan on a car or ride-hailing in either town, because buses are slow and the outings are spread out. Palm Beach has two advantages. The flat Lake Trail makes cycling the nicest way around the island, and the fast train from West Palm Beach puts Miami within reach without driving.

St. Pete Beach is a single narrow strip along Gulf Boulevard. A beach trolley runs its length, and Pass-a-Grille and Corey Avenue are easy to walk. Fort De Soto, St. Petersburg and Tampa all need a car.

This is where the two towns differ most. Worth Avenue is a true luxury street, with major fashion houses and jewellers set among Mizner's palm-shaded vias. Palm Beach's consignment shops sell designer pieces from wealthy local wardrobes, and Antique Row in West Palm Beach is a long draw for furniture and art.

St. Pete Beach sells swimwear, beach gear and souvenirs, with a few independent boutiques on Corey Avenue and craft shops in Pass-a-Grille. For anything more, you have to drive to St. Petersburg or Tampa.

Neither is cheap, but Palm Beach costs far more. Island hotels in the winter season are priced above big-city levels, and restaurants are aimed at very wealthy diners. The usual way round it is to stay in West Palm Beach and drive over, or to come in the steamy summer.

St. Pete Beach is expensive rather than exclusive. Its peak is February to April, and older motels a block back from the sand and casual seafood shacks keep a stay manageable. Its beaches are free apart from parking.

Palm Beach has a real winter cultural season. The Kravis Center brings touring Broadway shows, orchestras and ballet, and is home to Palm Beach Opera's short season. Palm Beach Dramaworks stages serious theatre, and the Society of the Four Arts holds chamber concerts on the island. Outside winter, though, the calendar thins out a lot.

In St. Pete Beach, live performance means a cover band at a beach bar. For the Florida Orchestra or a touring musical, you have to drive to St. Petersburg or to Tampa's performing arts centre.

Palm Beach is the better place for a restful stay. The island is quiet and manicured, with lagoon walks and few crowds outside the high season, and its big oceanfront resorts have large, polished spas with saltwater pools. It is luxurious, but none of it is cheap.

St. Pete Beach relaxes you more through its pace than through its spas. It has resort spas and day spas along Gulf Boulevard, but the real pleasure is drifting from a morning walk on the sand to watching the sunset. Unhurried Pass-a-Grille is the calmest corner, except during the spring-break weeks.