Panama City Beach or St. Pete Beach?

These are equally fine beaches of soft, pale quartz sand on shallow Gulf water. Panama City Beach is the bigger, busier one, about 43km of shore mostly lined with condo towers, with clear green water and rip currents serious enough that the warning flags really matter. Its quieter options are the western end, the sheltered lagoon at St. Andrews State Park and the boat run out to Shell Island.

St. Pete Beach has calmer water with little surf and a lower, gentler edge at Pass-a-Grille, where the wide sand faces the sunset. Fort De Soto's long beaches backed by pines and Shell Key's undeveloped sand are close by. The one drawback here is red tide, which now and then spoils the water for a while.

In both towns you eat Gulf seafood at casual places by the water, but St. Pete Beach does it a little better. Smoked fish spread and stone crab claws join the grouper and shrimp, Pass-a-Grille and Corey Avenue have some relaxed sit-down restaurants, and St. Petersburg's breweries and more ambitious kitchens are a short drive away.

Panama City Beach is best for oysters from the nearby bays and fish sandwiches on dockside decks. Otherwise, chains and big themed restaurants along Front Beach Road take up most of the choice, and there is no nearby city to make up the difference.

Neither is a place for sightseeing, but St. Pete Beach has a little more history to look at. The pink Don CeSar from the 1920s, the old cottages of Pass-a-Grille and the Spanish-American War batteries at Fort De Soto are all within easy reach, and the major museums of St. Petersburg are across the bay.

Panama City Beach was built mostly after the mid-twentieth century and has little to offer beyond the small Man in the Sea Museum, which covers diving history, and the older streets of the St. Andrews district across the bay in Panama City.

Nights out are low-key in both, with beach bars, tiki decks and cover bands, but the evenings run differently. Panama City Beach gets louder on its own strip, with DJs and some dancing on summer weekends around Pier Park, and in March the spring-break crowds take over Front Beach Road.

St. Pete Beach gathers for the sunset and goes quiet soon after dark. Its advantage is downtown St. Petersburg, about half an hour away, which has the later and bigger nights that neither beach town has.

Both are flat coastal places where most outdoor time is spent on the water, and St. Pete Beach has a slight edge for wildlife. Its mangrove kayak trails at Fort De Soto and Shell Key, manatees in the bay in the cooler months and roseate spoonbills among the shorebirds give it more to see.

Panama City Beach offers different scenery: tall white dunes at St. Andrews State Park, a rare coastal dune lake at Camp Helen, and diving on artificial reefs and wrecks offshore. It also has inland trails and a state forest for walking and cycling.

St. Pete Beach is much better placed for day trips. Within an hour you can reach St. Petersburg's waterfront and Dalí Museum, Tampa's Ybor City, the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs, the Ringling estate in Sarasota and Anna Maria Island, and Orlando is possible on a long day.

From Panama City Beach the choice is narrower. The best trip is along Scenic Highway 30A to the pastel planned towns of Seaside and Rosemary Beach, or east to the old oyster port of Apalachicola. Pensacola and Tallahassee are near the limit of a day out.

Both suit young children equally well, with shallow, warm summer water and easy sand. The difference is where the entertainment is. Panama City Beach has it on the doorstep: a water park, a marine park with dolphin shows, a small zoo and rows of go-kart tracks and mini-golf, with condos and pools as the usual base. Steer clear of March, though.

St. Pete Beach is quieter on its own, with shelling, dolphin boats and the fort at Fort De Soto. The bigger outings mean a drive of up to an hour to the aquariums in Clearwater and Tampa or to Busch Gardens.

You will want a car in both towns, but St. Pete Beach is easier to manage without one for a day or two. A beach trolley runs the length of the narrow island, and Pass-a-Grille and Corey Avenue are compact enough to walk or cycle. Tampa's airport is about 45 minutes by road.

Panama City Beach stretches about 43km, has patchy pavements and a slow, sparse trolley-bus, and the main road crawls in summer traffic. Almost everything there is a drive.

Panama City Beach has more shopping on hand, though none of it is distinctive. Pier Park has mainstream chain stores and a department store, and the huge souvenir warehouses with shark-mouth entrances are a sight in their own right. For anything more individual, the boutiques of the 30A towns are the place to go.

At St. Pete Beach the shops mostly sell swimwear and souvenirs, with a few independent boutiques and galleries on Corey Avenue and craft shops at Pass-a-Grille. For a mall you have to drive inland.

Panama City Beach is the cheaper stay. Condos with kitchens keep meal costs down, and because its winters are cool, the off-season is long and rates drop steeply, which makes extended winter stays good value.

St. Pete Beach charges most in exactly those months, from February to April, when its milder winter brings visitors from the north, and its beachfront resorts are expensive all year. The way to save there is an older motel a block back from the sand in late summer.

The two towns are much alike, with cover bands and acoustic sets on beach-bar decks and little else in town. What differs is what lies within reach. Panama City, across the bay, has a restored historic theatre with a modest season.

St. Pete Beach is a short drive from the Florida Orchestra and mid-sized theatres in St. Petersburg, and from Tampa's large performing arts centre, with its opera and touring musicals.

St. Pete Beach is the easier place to unwind. The larger resorts have full-service spas, and the town's rhythm of morning walks, long afternoons and a sunset that everyone stops to watch is especially slow in Pass-a-Grille.

Panama City Beach has a few resort and day spas, and its peace depends on the season. From autumn to spring the empty sand is perfect for long walks, but summer and spring break make it loud and crowded.