Pensacola or St. Augustine?

Pensacola has the better water. The Gulf off Santa Rosa Island is usually clear and calm, while the Atlantic off Anastasia Island tends to be greenish and stirred up. Pensacola's beaches are about twenty minutes from downtown across the bridges, so many people who come for the sand stay on the island itself. On rougher days, check the rip-current flags.

St. Augustine's advantage is how close its beaches are. The wide, flat sand from Anastasia State Park to Crescent Beach is ten to fifteen minutes from the old town. The water shelves gently, which suits less confident swimmers, and you can easily spend the morning at the fort and the afternoon in the sea. Vilano Beach, north of the inlet, is a smaller, more local alternative.

Both towns eat mainly seafood in casual waterfront places, and neither has the range of a big city. The flavours differ. Pensacola leans on the Gulf, with oysters, royal red shrimp, grouper and gumbo with a Creole touch, plus craft breweries and brunch along Palafox Street. St. Augustine's own signature is Minorcan: the fiery datil pepper in hot sauce, a spicy clam chowder and pilau.

St. Augustine is far richer here. Its Spanish quarter dates from 1565, the coquina Castillo de San Marcos is the country's finest colonial fort, and Flagler's former hotels, now Flagler College and the Lightner Museum, add a second, Gilded Age layer. Together with the Cathedral Basilica and Fort Matanzas, there is a lot to see in a small space.

Pensacola's Five Flags history is real but thinner on the ground. It centres on the restored houses around Plaza Ferdinand and the brick Fort Pickens. Its standout is the National Naval Aviation Museum, which sits on an active base with ID checks.

Pensacola gives you more to do after dark. Palafox Street and the Seville Quarter fill up at weekends with locals and young Navy personnel, there are rooftop terraces and taprooms, and the sand-floored beach bars and the rowdy roadhouse at the state line keep summer nights loud.

St. Augustine's evenings are gentler: courtyard pubs and patio cocktails around St. George Street, then mostly quiet well before the small hours. Neither town really has clubs.

Pensacola has more to offer outdoors. The national seashore's dunes, marsh and boardwalks bring herons, ospreys and dolphins close. Divers come for the large artificial reef formed by a sunken aircraft carrier offshore, and inland the clear, sand-bottomed Blackwater River is excellent for canoeing and tubing.

St. Augustine's marsh is just as pleasant, with kayak trips through the Matanzas creeks, birding walks in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve and lagoon paddling at Anastasia State Park. It has nothing to match the river or the dive. Both places are flat and best outdoors in the cooler months.

There is about as much on the list from either town, and both need a car. From Pensacola you head west to Mobile's antebellum streets and battleship and to Fairhope across the bay, or east to beach towns such as Seaside. From St. Augustine the big outings are Kennedy Space Center and the Orlando parks, each about two hours away, with Jacksonville and Victorian Fernandina Beach closer by.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Pensacola is the easier pure beach vacation, with shallow sound-side water, condos with kitchens and pools, and the aviation museum and Blue Angels for children who love planes. St. Augustine mixes the beach with history and animals: the long-running Alligator Farm, cannon firings at the Castillo and a compact, safe centre to walk around.

St. Augustine is much easier without driving all day. The fort, St. George Street, Flagler College and the bayfront are minutes apart on foot, sightseeing trolleys link the sights, and most visitors park once. You still need wheels for the beaches.

In Pensacola only the Palafox area is walkable. The beach, the naval air station, Perdido Key and the shops are spread out along highways and bridges, so nearly every outing means getting in the car.

Neither is a shopping destination. Pensacola's best is a handful of independent boutiques and antique shops on Palafox Street and the Saturday market. St. Augustine has more souvenirs, from St. George Street fudge to datil-pepper sauces, along with galleries on Aviles Street and an outlet mall by the interstate for the big brands.

Pensacola is the gentler on the wallet. Rooms in town and inland are clearly cheaper than beachfront, the aviation museum is free, the seashore costs little and island prices drop sharply off season. Car hire is the cost people forget.

In St. Augustine you pay for location. The historic inns and the hotels within walking distance of the old town fill up and charge steeply at weekends, so savings mean staying in highway motels or travelling midweek.

The two stages are about level, but they offer different nights out. Pensacola's restored 1925 Saenger Theatre is home to the symphony, opera and ballet, as well as touring shows. St. Augustine's open-air Amphitheatre in the Anastasia Island woods brings touring rock, country and folk acts, while serious classical music means a trip to Jacksonville.

Neither town has a spa culture beyond hotel treatment rooms and day spas, so relaxation comes from the pace. In Pensacola that means empty off-season stretches of Perdido Key and the island. St. Augustine's version is a B&B veranda or courtyard garden and an evening stroll along the bayfront seawall.