Panama City Beach or Sarasota?

These are two of the finest beaches on the Gulf, both made of soft white quartz sand over shallow green water. Panama City Beach is one long, continuous shore of about 43km, mostly backed by condo towers. The quieter swimming is in the sheltered lagoon at St. Andrews State Park and on undeveloped Shell Island, which you reach by boat. Rip currents are a real hazard there, so watch the flags.

Sarasota spreads its sand across several keys, each with a different feel: Siesta Key's cool, powdery sand, Lido Key a few minutes from downtown, residential Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island, and Venice with its fossil shark teeth. The water is calm with no real surf, but red tide now and then closes a beach, so check before you go.

Sarasota eats better, though neither town is a food destination. Panama City Beach offers fried and blackened grouper, oysters and shrimp baskets at dockside shacks, and otherwise mostly chain and themed restaurants along Front Beach Road.

Sarasota has the same Gulf seafood plus stone crab claws, along with bistros and wine bars on Main Street and St Armands Circle for an evening out. Its one real oddity is Pinecraft, where Amish and Mennonite family kitchens serve hearty cooking and pie.

This is where the two differ most. Sarasota has the Ringling, a full day of Rubens canvases, the Ca' d'Zan mansion on the bay and a circus museum. Architecture enthusiasts will also find the mid-century houses of the Sarasota School and the 1920s buildings of Burns Court.

Panama City Beach is a postwar resort strip. The Man in the Sea Museum on diving history is the main sight, and the older streets of St. Andrews across the bay are as far as history goes without a long drive.

Evenings are low-key in both towns, but in different ways. Panama City Beach is about beach bars with decks on the sand, frozen drinks in tiki huts and cover bands around Pier Park, lively on summer weekends and loud and student-heavy during March spring break. Sarasota's nights belong to an older crowd, with wine and cocktail bars on Main Street and sunset drinks in Siesta Key Village. In both places things wind down early, and Sarasota's clubbers drive to Tampa.

Both are flat coastal country with a lot of life on the water. Panama City Beach is better for sea anglers and divers, with wrecks and artificial reefs offshore, tall dunes at St. Andrews and a rare coastal dune lake by Camp Helen.

Sarasota's strength is wildlife. Alligators and wide prairies at Myakka River, with its treetop canopy walk, are about half an hour inland, and you can kayak through mangrove tunnels off Lido Key among manatees, dolphins and wading birds.

Sarasota has more within easy reach. St Petersburg's Dalí Museum is about an hour away across the Sunshine Skyway, and beyond it are Ybor City's cigar-making heritage, the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs and the Edison and Ford winter estates at Fort Myers.

From Panama City Beach the best drive is along 30A to the pastel planned towns of Seaside and Rosemary Beach, or east to the old oyster port of Apalachicola. Pensacola's naval aviation museum is a long day out at around two hours.

Both work well for children, but Panama City Beach is more organised around them. Front Beach Road has a water park, a marine park with dolphin shows, a small zoo, go-karts and mini-golf, and the St. Andrews lagoon is a safe place for a first snorkel. Avoid March.

Sarasota offers quieter days: some of the gentlest water anywhere, Mote's aquarium with real research behind it, and the circus model at the Ringling. There is no theme park nearby, though.

You need a car in both, but Sarasota is the less tiring of the two. Downtown, St Armands Circle and Siesta Key Village are each pleasant on foot, a free trolley runs along Siesta Key, and the keys and the bayfront are good for cycling.

Panama City Beach is a 43km strip along one road and a highway, with patchy pavements, a slow trolley-bus and crawling summer traffic, so walking really only works on the sand.

Sarasota is the nicer place to browse. St Armands Circle has resort wear, jewellery and galleries, and Palm Avenue and Main Street add independent boutiques. Panama City Beach offers chain stores at Pier Park and huge souvenir warehouses with shark-mouth doors. For anything more individual, its shoppers head to the 30A towns.

Panama City Beach is the cheaper stay. Condos with kitchens keep meal costs down, and rates fall sharply outside summer and spring break, so long winter stays are a bargain.

Sarasota is pricier, and its seasons run the other way. January to April is the expensive peak on Siesta and Longboat Keys, and summer is when it gets cheaper. Free public beaches and low state park fees help a little in both.

Sarasota is in another league for a town its size. It has an opera in a restored 1920s theatre, a ballet known for Frederick Ashton's work, a full orchestral season and the Asolo Rep on the Ringling grounds, mostly between autumn and spring.

Panama City Beach's live music is cover bands and acoustic sets on bar decks. Its nearest stage is a historic theatre in Panama City with a modest touring programme.

Sarasota is more restful. Its whole pace is slow, with spas on Longboat and Lido Keys, sunrise yoga, and the warm, spring-fed pool at Warm Mineral Springs about forty minutes south.

Panama City Beach has a few resort spas and little else. Its calm comes from the empty winter beach and sunset walks, since summer and spring break are loud.