Palm Beach or Virginia Beach?

Both towns have fine beaches on the same ocean, but the swimming is quite different. Palm Beach has the warmer, clearer water because the Gulf Stream runs close to shore, and you can swim all year. Its own public sand is limited to a few stretches between seawalls and estates, though, so for wide beaches you drive to Singer Island, Jupiter or Delray, or go to Peanut Island for calm snorkelling.

Virginia Beach has more beach right in town: a broad strip of pale sand behind the boardwalk, surfing by the fishing pier, calm bay water at First Landing and dunes at Sandbridge. The drawback is the short season, which covers only the summer months.

Neither is a food destination, so the difference is one of style. Palm Beach is formal: French and Italian dining rooms, stone crab in season and dress codes that are enforced. West Palm Beach adds Cuban bakeries, Caribbean takeaways and a weekend green market.

Virginia Beach is more casual and more tied to its own waters. The best of it is Lynnhaven oysters, blue crab cakes and she-crab soup at dockside places on the bay side, well away from the chains and buffets of the Oceanfront.

Palm Beach has more to see, and its sights tell one connected story: Flagler's Whitehall mansion, Mizner's Mediterranean Revival courtyards on Worth Avenue and the estates along South Ocean Boulevard. Across the lagoon, the Norton Museum of Art has a serious collection.

Virginia Beach's sights fit into an afternoon: the 1607 landing site at Cape Henry with its old lighthouse, the Adam Thoroughgood House and the Neptune statue on the boardwalk. Its real history lies up the peninsula, so it is a day trip rather than something you find in town.

Both are quiet places for a night out, and the difference is in mood. On Palm Beach island, evenings mean dinner and a drink in a hotel bar. Anything livelier means crossing to Clematis Street and Rosemary Square in West Palm Beach for rooftop terraces and cocktail bars.

Virginia Beach is louder and more seasonal. Summer nights on Atlantic Avenue and the boardwalk mean beach bars, sports bars and rooftop decks full of vacationers and sailors, but things go quiet once the season ends. For more character, people drive to Norfolk's Ghent district.

Both sit in flat coastal country, and the best of each is on the water. Palm Beach suits divers and snorkellers, with reefs close offshore and the well-known shallow dive under the Blue Heron Bridge. On land it has Everglades boardwalks with alligators at Loxahatchee, and manatees gather nearby in winter.

Virginia Beach is more about trails and the surface of the sea. It has forest and cypress-swamp trails at First Landing, the long empty barrier spit of Back Bay and False Cape to explore by bike, surfing, and kayak trips out to the dolphins in summer.

Virginia Beach has the stronger day out. Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown are about an hour away, and between them they cover the colonial story from the first settlement to the end of the Revolutionary War. Norfolk's waterfront, Kitty Hawk and Richmond are further options.

From Palm Beach the main excursion is Miami, an easy trip by fast train, for South Beach and Little Havana. Otherwise the nearby coast is a line of resort towns such as Delray and Boca Raton, which feel much like Palm Beach itself.

Palm Beach works with children, but everything is spread out. The zoo with its jaguars and Florida panthers, the science centre and aquarium for a rainy afternoon, and Manatee Lagoon in winter are all across the bridge in West Palm Beach. The drive-through safari park is further out in the western suburbs. The best water for small swimmers is Peanut Island's shallow lagoon, which you reach by boat across the inlet, so a family day here means a lot of moving between places.

Virginia Beach puts more of it in one place. On the Oceanfront, children can go from the sand to bike rides on the boardwalk, mini-golf and summer street performers without getting back in the car. The hotels and rental houses along the strip are set up for families. You only need to drive for the bigger outings, and those fill a whole day on their own.

Both realistically need a car. Palm Beach makes a car-free stay a little easier: you can cycle the flat Lake Trail, ride the free trolley in downtown West Palm Beach and take the fast train for a simple trip to Miami.

In Virginia Beach you can get by on foot only along the Oceanfront, where the boardwalk and a summer trolley serve the hotel strip. Sandbridge, First Landing and Town Center are spread across the suburbs, and summer traffic can be slow.

Palm Beach is a real shopping destination. Worth Avenue gathers luxury houses and jewellers around Mizner's shaded vias, the island's consignment shops sell designer pieces from wealthy local wardrobes, and Antique Row in West Palm Beach adds a long strip of dealers.

Virginia Beach has malls, national chains at Town Center and a lot of souvenir T-shirt shops. Its surf shops are the one kind of store with real local roots.

Virginia Beach is clearly the cheaper of the two, though not a bargain. Summer rooms and beach houses are expensive, especially at weekends, but prices fall sharply out of season, and the beach, boardwalk and parks cost little.

Palm Beach is priced for the very wealthy, above all in its winter peak. You can make it workable by staying in West Palm Beach, coming in summer and sticking to free pleasures such as the beaches and the Lake Trail, but it never feels cheap.

Palm Beach has the richer winter programme. The Kravis Center hosts touring Broadway shows, visiting orchestras, ballet and Palm Beach Opera's short winter season, Palm Beach Dramaworks stages serious plays, and the Society of the Four Arts runs chamber concerts. Much of this stops from late spring.

Virginia Beach's live music happens mostly outdoors in summer, with rock and country tours at the amphitheatre and free concerts on the boardwalk. For opera, the symphony or the spring Virginia Arts Festival, you go to Norfolk.

Palm Beach is the more restful place. The island is quiet and slow, and the oceanfront resorts have large spas with salt-water pools. Walks by the lagoon, yoga on the beach and early swims in warm sea fill the rest of the day.

Virginia Beach has hotel spas and a few day spas, but finding calm depends on timing. Early mornings on the boardwalk and the quiet spring and autumn months are peaceful, while high summer is crowded and loud.