St. Augustine or West Palm Beach?

Both cities reach the Atlantic over a bridge, and West Palm Beach has the better sea. St. Augustine's Anastasia Island has a long, wide strand with gentle surf that works well in summer, but the water is greenish and too cool for swimming in winter. Its strength is how close it is: a morning at the fort and an afternoon in the waves fit easily into one day.

West Palm's beaches on Palm Beach, Singer Island and Juno have clearer water that stays warm enough to swim all year. Peanut Island adds sheltered lagoon swimming and snorkelling that St. Augustine has nothing to match.

St. Augustine has the more distinctive story, with Minorcan datil pepper in its spicy clam chowder and pilau. Beyond a few chef-led places around the old town and San Marco, though, it is a small town's fried-seafood scene, and St. George Street cooks for passing visitors.

West Palm Beach gives more range and more comfort: grilled grouper and stone crab in season, terraces on Clematis Street, formal dining rooms across the water in Palm Beach and Caribbean bakeries away from the centre. Neither is a food destination, but there is more choice in West Palm.

This is where St. Augustine pulls ahead. The Spanish town of 1565 is the sight in itself, with the Castillo de San Marcos on the bayfront, balconied lanes behind it, Flagler College's Tiffany glass and the Lightner Museum. The lighthouse and Fort Matanzas fill out a third day.

West Palm Beach has the stronger single collection in the Norton Museum of Art, and Whitehall tells the other half of Flagler's railway story. Beyond that, its downtown is mostly modern, so the rest is an afternoon among the Palm Beach villas and the courtyards off Worth Avenue.

Neither will keep you out till dawn, and West Palm Beach only just has more going on. St. Augustine's evenings are courtyard pubs and patio bars in the old lanes, livened up by students in term time and mostly over well before the small hours.

West Palm's Clematis Street and Rosemary Square add rooftop terraces and a couple of dance spots that fill at weekends, which St. Augustine lacks. For proper clubbing, people from both go elsewhere, and from West Palm, Miami is close.

Both are flat, watery coasts, but West Palm Beach has more to do in its water. St. Augustine's outdoors is gentle: kayaking through salt marsh creeks among dolphins and ospreys, the dunes and lagoon of Anastasia State Park and long birding walks in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve.

West Palm adds what lies under the surface. Reefs and drift dives are a short boat ride out, the shore snorkel under the Blue Heron Bridge is known for seahorses and octopus, and inland, Loxahatchee and Grassy Waters give a taste of the Everglades with alligators and wading birds.

The difference is Miami. From St. Augustine, nearly every outing means driving: Jacksonville's museums and gardens, Victorian Fernandina Beach, Daytona's speedway, or the two-hour runs to Kennedy Space Center and Orlando's parks.

West Palm Beach has a major city an hour away by fast train, with South Beach, Little Havana and Wynwood all reachable without a car. Closer in, Delray Beach's Japanese gardens and Boca Raton's pink Mizner buildings are pleasant, though they feel more like neighbouring coastal towns than a real change of scene.

Both work well with children, in different ways. St. Augustine turns history into play, with cannon firing at the Castillo, a lighthouse to climb and pirate museums, while the Alligator Farm, open since 1893, adds ziplines and crocodilians. Orlando's parks are a two-hour drive.

West Palm Beach is more about animals and calm water. There is the drive-through Lion Country Safari, manatees at the free Manatee Lagoon in winter, and Peanut Island's sheltered lagoon for small swimmers.

These two are much alike: a compact, flat centre you can walk, and a car for everything else. St. Augustine's sights are packed more tightly, with the fort, Flagler College and the bayfront minutes apart and sightseeing trolleys looping past them.

West Palm's advantage is the railway, which carries you south to Fort Lauderdale and Miami. A free downtown trolley and the Lake Trail make cycling over to Palm Beach easy.

There is little contest here. St. Augustine's St. George Street is mostly fudge, T-shirts and pirate souvenirs, and the better finds are the galleries and antique dealers on Aviles Street and a bottle of local datil sauce.

West Palm Beach has Worth Avenue, a palm-lined street of luxury fashion and jewellery with tiled vias that are worth walking even if you buy nothing. Designer consignment shops, Rosemary Square's mainstream brands and the long stretch of Antique Row on South Dixie Highway give several days' worth of browsing.

Neither is cheap, but St. Augustine is easier on the wallet. Its historic inns near the old town charge steeply at weekends, but chain motels by the highway, midweek visits and free days on the old streets and beaches keep the cost down.

West Palm Beach is pricier, most of all from December to April, when Palm Beach hotel rooms rank among the dearest on the coast and restaurants are priced for a well-off crowd. Summer rates fall a long way, but you pay for that in heat and storms, and the near-constant need for a car adds to any budget.

West Palm Beach has the fuller stage. St. Augustine's highlight is the open-air Amphitheatre in the Anastasia Island woods, with touring rock, country and folk acts for much of the year. Beyond that there are patio cover bands and a community theatre, and for opera you go to Jacksonville.

West Palm has the Kravis Center for Broadway tours, visiting orchestras and the Palm Beach Opera, along with Palm Beach Dramaworks for serious plays and concerts at the Society of the Four Arts. The catch is that its season thins out sharply in summer.

Neither has a bathing culture, so relaxation comes from the setting. St. Augustine offers quiet B&B verandas, courtyard gardens and an evening walk along the bayfront seawall, but little in the way of spa treatments beyond a few hotel rooms and day spas.

West Palm Beach has more to slow down with. Large oceanfront resort spas on Palm Beach offer pools and long, unhurried days, and the island's quiet, manicured pace and the lagoon promenades suit an early-morning walk.