Savannah or St. Petersburg, Florida?

In Savannah the beach is a day trip. Tybee Island lies about half an hour east and has wide, flat sand and warm summer water, coloured greenish-brown by the marshes.

St. Petersburg is built around its beaches. A string of barrier islands just west of downtown gives you fine white sand at St. Pete Beach and Pass-a-Grille, wilder shores at Fort De Soto and the sands of Caladesi Island, which you can only reach by ferry, all with calm, shallow Gulf water. A whole beach week works here in a way it never quite does from Savannah, though summer storms and the odd bout of red tide are worth knowing about.

Savannah has the stronger local cooking, rooted in the Lowcountry: shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Lowcountry boil and family-style Southern dining rooms. A small group of chef-led restaurants in restored townhouses around the historic district sits above that.

St. Petersburg eats more casually. Grouper sandwiches and stone crab come from waterfront fish shacks, and Central Avenue has a range of modern American kitchens. Where it pulls ahead is beer, with taprooms all over town, and the Cuban cooking of Ybor City is a short trip across the bay.

In Savannah the streets are the main sight. Oglethorpe's grid of garden squares, the Federal and Greek Revival houses, Factors Walk and Bonaventure Cemetery are backed by the Telfair Museums and the Owens-Thomas House, which tells the story of the enslaved people who worked there.

St. Petersburg's culture is mostly indoors, along one stretch of waterfront. The Dalí Museum is a real draw, and the Museum of Fine Arts and the Chihuly glass collection sit nearby. The historic buildings are thinner on the ground, mostly 1920s Mediterranean Revival, so a culture-minded visitor runs out of sights sooner.

Savannah gives you the livelier night out. In the historic district you can carry a drink in a to-go cup, so evenings wander from River Street's cobbled bars to the taverns of City Market. Art students keep a few dive bars busy, and St Patrick's Day turns into one of the South's biggest street parties.

St. Petersburg is calmer. Evenings centre on the rooftops, cocktail bars and taprooms of Central Avenue, and the beach tiki bars are the place for sunset. Neither city goes on until dawn, and St. Pete's visitors cross the bay to Ybor City for a bigger night.

Both sit in flat country dominated by water, with no hills, but St. Petersburg makes more of it. Paddling trails through the mangroves at Weedon Island and Shell Key bring dolphins, rays and, in winter, manatees. Fort De Soto adds coastal walks and birding, and the long Pinellas Trail makes cycling easy, all at its best in the mild winter months.

Savannah's salt marsh is lovely by kayak at high tide, with herons and wood storks, and Wormsloe's avenue of oaks and Skidaway Island are gentler outings. Summer insects and humidity, though, limit the outdoor season to spring and autumn.

Both have a good handful of outings, and both need a car for them. Savannah's lean towards history: Charleston two hours north, antebellum Beaufort, Fort Pulaski and the old millionaires' district on Jekyll Island.

St. Petersburg's are more mixed. You can go from the cigar-factory streets of Ybor City and the Ringling in Sarasota to the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs, and Orlando's theme parks are just within reach on a long day.

St. Petersburg is the better family base. The gentle, shallow Gulf water suits small children and the resorts are set up for families. The city's children's museum, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and Tampa's Busch Gardens, Florida Aquarium and zoo give you a week of outings, though mostly by car.

Savannah works for a few days with older children, who will enjoy the ghost walks, forts, trolley tours and free ferry. It has no large zoo, aquarium or theme park, and the summer heat soon tires young children.

Savannah's historic district is the easier place to manage without a car. It is flat, compact and laid out on a grid, with sights, restaurants and inns a short walk apart, and a free shuttle and river ferry fill the gaps. You only need wheels for Tybee, Wormsloe and Bonaventure.

St. Petersburg's walkable downtown covers less of what visitors come for. A trolley loop and a rapid bus reach St. Pete Beach, but the other beaches, Fort De Soto and everything across the bay really call for a hire car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and neither has a luxury street. Savannah's browsing feels older, with Broughton Street's restored storefronts, antique dealers and bookshops among the squares, and work by art-school students for sale. St. Petersburg feels younger and more independent, with vintage and record shops on Central Avenue, a Saturday market in winter, and Tampa's malls half an hour away for brand names.

Both charge full American prices, with tax and tip on top of every meal, and in both the free pleasures do much of the work. The money goes on different things. In Savannah it is historic-district inns on spring weekends and festival dates. In St. Petersburg it is beachfront rooms from February to April, plus a hire car and beach parking. Both get cheaper in the hot, stormy summer.

Both have a modest scene, but at different times of year. Savannah's high points are the spring Music Festival, held in historic theatres and churches, and jazz in Forsyth Park in autumn, with little on in between.

St. Petersburg is more even through the year. The Florida Orchestra plays at the Mahaffey Theater, there is a regional theatre company and bars have bands at weekends. Tampa's large arts centre across the bay covers opera and ballet.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and the spas in both are hotel or day spas, so relaxing comes down to pace. In Savannah that means a bench under the oaks or the courtyard of a quiet inn on a southern square, best midweek in spring or autumn. In St. Petersburg it means watching the sunset from the beach and the sleepy streets of Pass-a-Grille, and the warm, dry winter days are the most restful time to come.