Sarasota or West Palm Beach?

Sarasota has the better beach, and the sand is the reason to go. Siesta Key's white quartz is the finest on either coast and stays cool even in strong sun, and the Gulf shelves so gently that small children can wade a long way out without meeting a wave. The keys lie just off the town, so the sand is never far away, and a fossil hunt for shark teeth at Venice makes an easy change. The drawbacks are a Gulf that turns cool in winter and red tide blooms that sometimes close a beach.

West Palm Beach gives up some of that softness and stillness for clear Atlantic water that is warm enough to swim in every month, because the Gulf Stream runs close to this coast. The town looks onto a lagoon, so every beach day starts with a short trip over a bridge to Palm Beach or Singer Island. The surf can turn rough in hurricane season, and some late-summer days bring seaweed. For calm water there is Peanut Island, a short boat ride across the inlet, where the sheltered lagoon suits children and snorkellers.

Neither city is a place to plan a trip around meals, but West Palm Beach eats a little better. Alongside the waterfront terraces and seafood rooms of Clematis Street, Cuban, Haitian and Caribbean bakeries and lunch counters away from the centre add flavours Sarasota doesn't really have.

Sarasota keeps to Gulf seafood, grouper sandwiches and fish shacks on the keys, with its more ambitious rooms on Main Street and St Armands Circle. Its one real oddity is Pinecraft, where Amish and Mennonite family restaurants serve hearty cooking and pie.

These two are fairly even, each built around a rich man's legacy rather than an old town. Sarasota has the Ringling: a serious Baroque collection with major Rubens canvases, the Venetian Gothic Ca' d'Zan and a circus museum, plus the mid-century modernism of the Sarasota School for architecture fans.

West Palm Beach answers with the Norton Museum's broader collection of American, European and Chinese art and Flagler's marble Whitehall across the lagoon. Its other draw is wandering Palm Beach's Mediterranean Revival villas and the vias off Worth Avenue, which feels more like a sightseeing stroll than anything in Sarasota.

West Palm Beach is the better night out, though neither is a party town. Clematis Street and Rosemary Square pack cocktail bars, rooftops and a couple of dance spots into a few walkable blocks, and they fill with a younger crowd at weekends. Miami is the place for proper clubbing.

Sarasota's evenings are gentler and older: wine bars on Main Street and sunset drinks at the beach bars of Siesta Key Village, mostly winding down early. Anyone wanting more drives to Tampa or St Petersburg.

Both are flat, watery and subtropical, so the difference is in what you do outside. Sarasota is about wildlife on land and in the bay: Myakka River State Park's prairies, canopy walkway and alligators, plus kayaking through Lido Key's mangrove tunnels with dolphins and manatees about.

West Palm Beach looks more to the sea. The Blue Heron Bridge shore dive, with seahorses and octopus, and Gulf Stream reefs a short boat ride out have no match on the Gulf side. Inland, Grassy Waters and the Loxahatchee refuge give a taste of the Everglades, and turtles nest on the beaches around Juno and Jupiter.

West Palm Beach has a slight advantage, mostly because Miami is an easy train ride away, with South Beach's Art Deco, Little Havana and Wynwood. Closer in, Delray Beach's Morikami gardens and Boca Raton's pink Mizner buildings are pleasant, though much of the rest is more coastal towns.

From Sarasota the best outings are by car: St Petersburg's Dalí Museum over the Sunshine Skyway, Tampa's cigar district of Ybor City and the Greek sponge docks at Tarpon Springs. Those give a bit more variety, even if no single one is as big a day out as Miami.

Both work well for a relaxed family beach vacation, with no theme park close by and a car needed for nearly everything. Sarasota's calm, shallow Gulf shallows are the gentlest water for toddlers, and Mote Marine's aquarium and the Ringling's circus model fill the other days.

West Palm Beach offers more animal outings: Lion Country Safari's drive-through park, the zoo, the science centre and the free Manatee Lagoon in winter. Its warm winter sea also means children can swim in months when Sarasota's water is chilly.

West Palm Beach is the easier of the two without a car, at least in the centre. Downtown is compact, a free trolley links the waterfront with Clematis Street and Rosemary Square, and fast trains run south to Fort Lauderdale and Miami. You can also cycle over to Palm Beach and along the Lake Trail.

Sarasota is car country almost everywhere. Main Street, St Armands Circle and Siesta Key Village are each walkable, and a trolley runs along Siesta Key, but the keys, museums and parks are spread out, and winter traffic on the bridges can be slow.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Worth Avenue gives West Palm Beach a true luxury street, with fashion and jewellery houses set around Mediterranean courtyards, and the island's consignment shops and the dealers of Antique Row add plenty of browsing beyond it.

Sarasota's shopping is a pleasant sideline. St Armands Circle has resort wear, galleries and gifts, and Main Street and Palm Avenue have independent boutiques, but there is little at the luxury end and few people would travel for it.

Neither is cheap, but Sarasota is somewhat easier on the budget. Staying on the mainland rather than on Siesta or Longboat Key cuts costs, and the beaches are free and the state parks charge little to get in. Summer and early autumn are cheaper again.

West Palm Beach is pricier, with Palm Beach's hotels among the dearest on the coast and high rates even downtown through the winter. Summer brings rooms down sharply, and the free trolley cuts some car use within the centre.

Sarasota is clearly the stronger stage town for its size. It has its own opera in a restored 1920s theatre, a ballet company known for Frederick Ashton, a full orchestral season, and the Asolo Rep and Florida Studio Theatre for drama. Most of it runs from autumn to spring.

West Palm Beach relies more on visiting productions. The Kravis Center brings in Broadway tours, orchestras and the Palm Beach Opera, and Palm Beach Dramaworks stages serious plays. A big outdoor amphitheatre hosts rock and pop tours, which Sarasota lacks.

Rest here mostly comes from the slow pace in both, with resort spas rather than any bathing tradition. Sarasota has the one real curiosity, Warm Mineral Springs, a spring-fed pool about forty minutes south, plus sunrise yoga on the sand.

West Palm Beach leans on its large oceanfront resort spas and Palm Beach's quiet, manicured calm, with lagoon promenades for early walks. In both, winter crowds can take some of the peace out of the high season.