St Barts or Vieques?

Both islands are made for the beach, but the beaches are different. On St Barts they are small coves, each a short drive from any villa. Some are wild and open, like Saline and Gouverneur. Others are calm lagoons behind the reef at Grand Cul-de-Sac, and Shell Beach is right in Gustavia. Lunch tables stand on the sand at St Jean and Flamands.

Vieques has dozens of beaches and they are often emptier. There is the long crescent of Sun Bay, and inside the refuge Caracas and La Chiva have reefs close to shore. But you will rarely find a lifeguard, café or sunbed, and some of these beaches are at the end of rough tracks, so you carry your own water and shade.

St Barts eats better, mainly because it eats French. There are proper boulangeries, supermarkets stocked with cheese and wine for villa cooking, long lunches on the sand and careful cooking on hillside terraces. Most of it is pitched at the same expensive level, and there is no street food.

On Vieques the food is more Puerto Rican and more casual: fish tacos and mofongo on the seafront at Esperanza, and alcapurrias from roadside kiosks. The choice is thin, though, and many kitchens close for days at a time out of season.

Neither island is a trip for sightseeing, and both can be seen in an afternoon. St Barts has its Swedish past, with the clock tower and the Wall House museum in Gustavia and the old straw-weaving village of Corossol. Vieques has the stronger story: the small Spanish fort above Isabel Segunda has a museum that covers the decades when the island was a naval bombing range.

St Barts has a real social scene, at least from Christmas to spring. Lunches at St Jean turn into afternoon parties, the Gustavia harbour bars and a couple of late clubs fill up, and the week around New Year brings the superyachts. In late summer, though, much of it closes.

Vieques has no clubs at all. An evening means rum punch at a few open-air bars along the Esperanza seafront, and for many visitors the night's outing is the kayak trip on the bioluminescent bay.

Vieques has the more memorable nature, above all Mosquito Bay, where every paddle stroke lights up the water on a dark night. By day the wildlife refuge at both ends of the island offers dry forest, salt ponds, dirt tracks for cycling and good birding, and you will pass semi-wild horses along the roads.

St Barts is steeper and smaller, so its outdoor life is mostly on the water. You can snorkel with turtles in the marine reserve, kitesurf on the Grand Cul-de-Sac lagoon or sail out to the offshore islets. On land there is little more than the cliff path to Colombier.

Neither island is a base for touring, but St Barts has the easier escape. The ferry to St Martin takes about an hour and lands you in a busier world: Marigot and Grand Case on the French side, Philipsburg on the Dutch side. From Vieques the best outing is Culebra and Flamenco Beach, but that means a chartered boat. Old San Juan, after a ferry and a drive, makes a long day.

For families the two islands come out about even, and both offer calm, shallow water for small children: Grand Cul-de-Sac and Shell Beach on St Barts, Media Luna and Sun Bay on Vieques. St Barts has tiny distances, a very safe feel and villas with pools.

Vieques gives children the horses along the roads and, for older ones, the night kayak trip. The drawbacks are the ferry crossing, beaches with no lifeguards and limited medical care.

St Barts is the easier island to move around. It is only a few kilometres across, so a small rental car gets you to any beach in minutes, and you can walk around Gustavia's harbour. The roads are steep and full of hairpin bends, though, and you have to arrive by small plane or by ferry.

Vieques is harder work from the start. The ferries from Ceiba often sell out or change times. Once there you need a jeep for the dirt roads into the refuge, and there are so few that you must book well ahead. Shared taxis cover only the run between the ferry and Esperanza.

Shopping is a real pastime on St Barts. Duty-free status brings a dense cluster of luxury fashion, watch and jewellery boutiques to the streets around Gustavia harbour, St Jean adds resort wear, and Corossol has straw work. On Vieques, shopping means a few galleries and craft shops in Esperanza and Isabel Segunda, and otherwise the grocery store.

Vieques is the cheaper island, though it is still not cheap. Prices are at US levels, ferry freight raises the cost of food, and jeep hire adds up. Still, simple guesthouses in Esperanza and cooking for yourself make a modest trip possible.

St Barts offers no such option. Villas, beach lunches, the small-plane flight and the rental car are all priced for the very wealthy, and even cooking in a villa saves only a little.

There is little live performance on either island, but St Barts has a little more. Its January music festival brings classical musicians, opera singers and dancers to the churches of Gustavia, and the carnival before Lent brings steel bands. Vieques has an occasional guitarist in an Esperanza bar and bomba and plena in the square at Isabel Segunda's yearly patron saint festivities.

Both islands restore you through their slow pace, but St Barts adds proper pampering. The luxury hotel spas are of a high standard, and therapists and yoga teachers will come to your villa. The exception is the busy week around New Year.

Vieques offers quiet in its purest form: roosters instead of nightlife and long empty afternoons. Beyond some yoga and massage at guesthouses and small studios, though, there is no real spa.