Savannah or St. Augustine?

St. Augustine is the beach town of the two. Anastasia Island's long pale sand runs from the dunes of the state park down to quieter Crescent Beach, with Vilano Beach north of the inlet, and all of it is ten to fifteen minutes from the old town, so swimming can fill any afternoon.

Savannah, set on a river, has to drive about half an hour to Tybee Island, a low-key beach town with wide flat sand that most visitors treat as a single day out. Both seas warm to around 28°C in high summer and both are greenish rather than clear, so the difference is access and choice rather than water quality.

Savannah eats better. Its Lowcountry repertoire runs from she-crab soup and Lowcountry boil to fire-roasted oysters in the cooler months, the family-style dining rooms with platters passed along long tables are an experience in themselves, and a handful of serious kitchens sit in restored townhouses south of Forsyth Park.

St. Augustine's table is narrower and mostly casual waterfront seafood, though its Minorcan heritage gives it one thing Savannah lacks: the fiery datil pepper, in hot sauces, pilau and a spicy clam chowder. Beyond that and a few chef-driven places around San Marco, depth means a trip to Jacksonville.

Savannah offers the fuller townscape. Oglethorpe's 1733 grid of garden squares under live oaks survives almost whole, so the walk itself is the sight, and the Telfair Museums, the Owens-Thomas House with its account of enslaved lives, and Bonaventure Cemetery add depth.

St. Augustine is older and more monumental in a few places, the 1565 Spanish town anchored by the coquina Castillo de San Marcos and, later, Flagler's extravagant hotel that is now Flagler College, with the Lightner Museum opposite. Its Spanish quarter is partly reconstruction, so it reads as a cluster of landmarks rather than an intact city.

Savannah has the livelier evenings. Open-container rules in the historic district let a night wander from River Street's cobbled bars to the taverns of City Market and on to cocktail rooms in old townhouses, and art students keep a few dive bars and dance nights busy. St Patrick's Day turns the whole city into a street party.

St. Augustine is gentler: courtyard pubs and cocktail bars around St. George and Hypolita streets, a small beach-bar scene on the island and almost no clubs. It suits a drink after dinner rather than a late night.

Both sit in flat, watery coastal country of salt marsh and tidal creek, and there is little to choose between them. The difference is in setting: Savannah's outdoors leans to the marsh itself, with kayaking at high tide, dolphin boat trips and the oak avenue at Wormsloe, while St. Augustine adds open-coast dunes, the lagoon at Anastasia State Park and long marsh walks in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve.

St. Augustine's milder winter also stretches the comfortable season from late autumn into spring.

Savannah has the richer list. Charleston is about two hours north, and the historic town of Beaufort, Hilton Head, Fort Pulaski and the Georgia islands of Jekyll and St Simons are all an easy drive, mostly old towns and coast that extend the same Southern character.

St. Augustine's outings lean towards big-ticket attractions instead: Kennedy Space Center and the Orlando theme parks are long two-hour days, Daytona's speedway is closer, and Victorian Fernandina Beach and Jacksonville's museums make quieter choices. A car is needed from either town.

St. Augustine is easier with children. The Alligator Farm, with every species of crocodilian and a zipline course, the cannon demonstrations at the Castillo and the lighthouse climb are ready-made treats, and a gentle beach is minutes away.

Savannah manages with shady squares, Forsyth Park, the free river ferry, ghost walks for older children and the Girl Scouts founder's birthplace, but it has no zoo, aquarium or theme park, and Tybee's beach and turtle centre need a drive.

Savannah is the better town to be without a car for a few days. Its historic district is larger but laid out on a flat grid of shaded squares, with a free downtown shuttle and a river ferry filling the gaps, so most of a stay happens on foot.

St. Augustine's walkable core is smaller, a few minutes from fort to Flagler College, and sightseeing trolleys loop the sights, but the beaches and lighthouse need a car, bike or taxi and old-town parking gets tight. In both, anything beyond the centre means driving.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Savannah gives the better browse. Broughton Street's restored storefronts hold clothing and home-goods boutiques, and shops selling work by art-school students and graduates add something distinctive.

St. Augustine's St. George Street is mostly fudge, T-shirts and pirate souvenirs; the galleries and antique dealers on Aviles Street are the better find, and an outlet mall by the interstate covers mainstream brands.

Costs are much the same in both: historic inns are in demand, weekend and peak rates climb, and eating out carries American tourist-town prices with tip on top. Highway motels and midweek stays help in each, at the cost of needing a car.

What differs is the free entertainment. In Savannah it is the squares, Forsyth Park and Bonaventure Cemetery; in St. Augustine it is the old streets and the public beaches close by, which makes a cheap day out easier there.

Neither town has a deep year-round stage, and the two are roughly matched; they differ in what they put on. Savannah's highlight is its spring Music Festival of chamber music, jazz, blues and Americana in historic theatres and churches, backed by a local philharmonic and an autumn jazz festival in Forsyth Park, so timing matters.

St. Augustine's real venue is the open-air Amphitheatre in the woods on Anastasia Island, booking touring rock, country and folk through much of the year, with cover bands on bar patios most nights.

Savannah is clearly the more restful of the two. Its twenty-odd squares put a shaded bench under the oaks on almost every walk, and a quiet inn on one of the southern squares, visited midweek in spring or autumn, stays well away from the weekend noise on River Street. Spas are few in both towns, and neither has a bathing tradition.

St. Augustine's calm is more confined: B&B verandas, courtyard gardens and an unhurried evening along the bayfront seawall, all in a small centre that fills up on long weekends.