Sarasota or Savannah?

This is Sarasota's great advantage. Siesta Key's powdery white quartz sand, the easy hop to Lido Key and the quieter shores of Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island make the beach part of every day, and the clear Gulf water stays bath-warm from May to October. Red tide is the one caveat.

Savannah has no beach of its own. Tybee Island, half an hour east, has wide flat sand and warm summer water, but the sea is coloured greenish-brown by the marshes and the town is low-key. Most visitors give it a day rather than a week.

Savannah has a culinary identity that Sarasota lacks. Lowcountry cooking, from she-crab soup and Lowcountry boil to oysters roasted over fire, is served at long family-style tables, and a small group of chef-led restaurants works in restored townhouses around the historic district.

Sarasota eats well on Gulf seafood, with grouper sandwiches and stone crab at waterside shacks, and Main Street and St Armands Circle have the more polished dining rooms. Beyond the Amish cooking and pie at Pinecraft, though, little here is worth planning a trip around.

Savannah is the richer sightseeing city, because the city itself is the sight. Oglethorpe's grid of garden squares, the Greek Revival and Victorian houses, Factors Walk and Bonaventure Cemetery give a day or two of walking, and the Telfair Museums and the Owens-Thomas House add depth.

Sarasota's culture centres on one site. The Ringling, with its Rubens paintings, Ca' d'Zan and circus museum, is worth a full day, and modernist architecture fans can seek out the Sarasota School houses. There is no old quarter, though, so once the Ringling is done the sights run thin.

Savannah has the livelier evenings. Drinks in to-go cups let a night move from the cobbled bars of River Street to the taverns around City Market, art students fill dive bars and dance nights, and St Patrick's Day becomes one huge street party.

Sarasota's nights are gentler and older: a wine bar on Main Street or a sunset drink at a beach bar in Siesta Key Village, with most places quiet before late. A big night out means driving to Tampa or St Petersburg.

Sarasota has the edge for wildlife and time on the water. Myakka River State Park brings alligators, open prairie and a treetop canopy walk within half an hour, and kayakers can paddle the mangrove tunnels off Lido Key or watch for manatees and dolphins in the bay.

Savannah's setting is the Lowcountry salt marsh, best seen by kayak at high tide or on a dolphin-spotting boat, with gentler walks along Wormsloe's avenue of oaks and the trails of Skidaway Island. Both places are completely flat, and both are hard work outdoors in summer.

Savannah has the stronger day trips, led by Charleston two hours north with its historic peninsula and plantations. Beaufort, Hilton Head, Fort Pulaski and the millionaires' district on Jekyll Island add variety within easy reach.

From Sarasota the best outing is St Petersburg and its Dalí Museum across the Sunshine Skyway, with Ybor City in Tampa, Greek Tarpon Springs and the Edison and Ford estates at Fort Myers further afield. It is a decent spread, but nothing quite equals a day in Charleston. Both lists need a car.

Sarasota is easier with children. The shallow, waveless water off Siesta Key and Lido Key is ideal for small swimmers, Mote Marine Laboratory's aquarium has sharks, turtles and manatees, and rentals with pools are easy to find. A theme park is over an hour away, though.

Savannah works for families without being built for them. Trolley tours, the free river ferry, the forts and ghost walks keep older children busy, and the Girl Scouts founder's birthplace is a draw, but there is no aquarium or zoo of size, and the beach is a drive away.

Savannah is far easier without a car. Its historic district is flat, compact and laid out on a grid, so most hotels, restaurants and sights are a short walk apart, with a free shuttle and a little river ferry for the gaps. You only need wheels for Tybee, Wormsloe and Bonaventure.

Sarasota is built around the car. Downtown, St Armands Circle and Siesta Key Village are each pleasant on foot, and a free trolley runs along Siesta Key, but buses are slow and winter traffic on the bridges to the keys can be heavy.

Neither city is worth the trip for shopping, but the browsing feels different. Sarasota's is resort shopping, with jewellery, resort wear and galleries around St Armands Circle and boutiques on Main Street and Palm Avenue, while Savannah's Broughton Street mixes boutiques with art-school work and antique shops, and pralines and hot sauce fill the souvenir stalls by the river.

Both are pricey American destinations, and neither is a budget pick. Sarasota's costs peak from January to April on the keys and a hire car is close to essential, though the beaches are free.

Savannah's inns charge weekend-destination prices, but much of what you come for, from the squares and Forsyth Park to the cemeteries and riverfront, costs nothing and is reachable on foot. In both cities summer is the cheaper time to go.

Sarasota has a much fuller stage. Through autumn, winter and spring there is opera in a restored 1920s theatre, a ballet company known for Ashton, a full orchestral season and the Asolo Repertory Theatre on the Ringling grounds, so almost any evening in season has something on.

Savannah's high point is its spring music festival of chamber music, jazz, blues and Americana in historic theatres and churches, plus an autumn jazz festival in Forsyth Park. Outside those dates there is little to attend beyond bar bands and buskers.

Both cities offer a slow pace rather than a spa culture, but the setting for doing nothing differs. In Sarasota it is a long beach day, sunrise yoga on the sand, a resort spa on Longboat Key or a soak in the warm water of Warm Mineral Springs to the south.

In Savannah the calm comes from a bench under the oaks or the porch of an old inn on a quiet southern square. River Street weekends and summer humidity can spoil it, just as winter crowds on the keys can in Sarasota.