St. Augustine or Washington DC?

St. Augustine has real beaches and Washington does not. Across the river, Anastasia Island's pale, gently shelving sand runs from the state park dunes south to Crescent Beach, and the sea is warm enough for proper swimming from late spring to autumn.

Washington's rivers are for paddling, not swimming. The nearest sand is a small, brackish stretch of the Chesapeake around Annapolis, and the Atlantic resorts are a weekend away rather than an afternoon out.

Washington eats far more widely. It has Ethiopian food around Shaw and U Street, pupusas in Columbia Heights, the half-smoke, Chesapeake crab and oysters, and serious tasting menus around Logan Circle and Penn Quarter. Eastern Market and Union Market make for easy grazing.

St. Augustine is a seafood town with one distinctive thread: the Minorcan datil pepper, found in its hot sauces and spicy clam chowder. Beyond a few chef-driven places near San Marco, the choice runs out quickly.

Both cities trade on American history, but at very different scales. St. Augustine offers the Spanish colonial story in one compact package: the coquina walls of the Castillo de San Marcos, the balconied lanes of the Spanish quarter, and Flagler's extravagant hotels.

Washington adds a week's worth of world-class museums, most of them free, along the Mall. Around them stand the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial and the Library of Congress. Its streets, though, are younger and plainer than St. Augustine's old quarter.

Washington has a proper night out, at least from Thursday to Saturday. There are cocktail bars and rooftops on 14th Street and U Street, late slices in Adams Morgan, dive bars on H Street and the LGBTQ+ bars of Dupont Circle.

In St. Augustine, the evening is a drink on a courtyard patio off St. George Street or at a beach bar on the island. There are hardly any clubs, and most places close well before the small hours.

Washington offers more outdoors, and more variety. Rock Creek Park and the C&O Canal towpath run right through the city. Great Falls has a rocky gorge with whitewater, and the Shenandoah ridges are within reach for proper hikes.

St. Augustine's outdoors is flat and watery. You can kayak salt-marsh creeks among dolphins and ospreys, paddleboard in the Anastasia lagoon and go birding in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve. It is gentle and lovely, but there is not a hill in sight.

From Washington, the day trips are rich in history and often need no car. Alexandria is a Metro ride away, Baltimore and even Philadelphia are reachable by train, and Mount Vernon, Annapolis, Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry are all within a comfortable drive.

St. Augustine's options mean driving and are thinner. Jacksonville and Victorian Fernandina Beach are the nearest. Kennedy Space Center and the Orlando parks are popular but long days of about two hours each way.

Washington edges ahead because so much is free and built for children: dinosaurs and gems at Natural History, rockets at Air and Space, and the zoo in Rock Creek Park. The long, hot distances on the Mall are the main drawback.

St. Augustine is smaller and easier to manage. Children get the Alligator Farm, cannon firings at the fort and the lighthouse climb, with gentle surf a short drive away. Washington cannot offer that beach afternoon.

Both centres are flat and walkable, but only Washington works once you leave the centre. The Metro, with lifts at every station, reaches Arlington, Alexandria and the airport, and bike-share links the monuments. Georgetown, which has no station, is the main gap.

In St. Augustine, the fort, the college and the bayfront are minutes apart on foot. The beaches and the lighthouse, though, mean driving or taking a taxi, as local buses are of little use.

Neither city is a shopping destination, but Washington has more to browse. Georgetown has boutiques and antique shops in old brick buildings, and there are luxury labels at CityCenterDC, makers' stalls at Eastern Market and Union Market, and good Smithsonian museum shops.

St. Augustine's St. George Street is mostly fudge and pirate souvenirs. The galleries on Aviles Street and bottles of datil-pepper sauce are the better finds.

Both are expensive, and St. Augustine is somewhat less so. Midweek stays and chain motels by the highway or on the island bring it down, and the beaches cost nothing.

Washington's hotels are dear all year, and its restaurants are priced for expense accounts. What offsets that is the sightseeing: free museums, memorials and the zoo can make the days themselves almost cost-free.

St. Augustine's stage comes down to one place: the open-air amphitheatre in the woods on Anastasia Island, which books touring rock, country and folk acts. Beyond that, there are cover bands on bar patios and a community theatre. For opera or serious drama, you would need to drive to Jacksonville.

Washington gives a theatre-goer a different choice each evening. Arena Stage and the Shakespeare Theatre Company run full seasons, Ford's Theatre and the Folger put on plays in historic houses, and the National Symphony and the Washington National Opera fill the classical calendar. Around U Street, the restored Lincoln and Howard theatres bring in big touring acts.

Neither city is a place for spa breaks, and both rely on hotel treatment rooms and a few day spas. The difference is in how calm they feel. In St. Augustine, the quiet comes with the slow pace: B&B verandas, courtyard gardens and a seawall stroll at dusk.

In Washington, you have to look for it among the government-town bustle, in an early walk by the Tidal Basin or an hour in the Dumbarton Oaks gardens.