St. Petersburg, Florida or Williamsburg, Virginia?

St. Petersburg has the beaches that Williamsburg lacks. The barrier islands west of the city have wide, fine white sand and shallow, gentle water at St. Pete Beach and Pass-a-Grille. Fort De Soto is wilder, and Caladesi Island is reached only by ferry. The Gulf is good for swimming for much of the year, though January and February are paddling weather and summer storms break up the afternoons.

Williamsburg sits inland between two rivers, so a beach means an outing. The choices are the small river beach at Yorktown, the bay at Buckroe or a drive of about an hour to the Atlantic at Virginia Beach. Swimming is a June to September affair, sea nettles can drift into the bay in high summer, and on most days the hotel pool does the job.

Neither is a trip for serious eaters, but St. Petersburg gives you more to work with. It has grouper sandwiches and stone crab at waterfront fish shacks, chef-led kitchens in the Grand Central and Edge districts, a long list of breweries, and Ybor City's Cuban cooking across the bay.

Williamsburg's food is more limited and more regional: country ham biscuits, peanut soup, crab cakes and Chesapeake oysters. The candlelit colonial taverns are more about the setting than the cooking, and Richmond Road is mostly chains and pancake houses. The best meals are the simple local ones, plus a glass at a winery on the edge of town.

Williamsburg has the stronger sense of place, because its whole historic core is the attraction. Duke of Gloucester Street runs from the Capitol to the Wren Building, past the Governor's Palace and craftspeople working in period dress. Nearly ninety original eighteenth-century buildings survive, and there are museums of folk and decorative art. It is a re-creation, but a thorough one.

St. Petersburg's culture is in its museums rather than its streets. The Dalí Museum is a real draw, with the Fine Arts, Chihuly and Arts and Crafts collections close by. Beyond those there is mainly 1920s Mediterranean Revival architecture and the downtown murals.

Of the two, only St. Petersburg has a proper night out. Cocktail bars, rooftops and taprooms on Central Avenue are close enough to walk between, beach tiki bars start the evening at sunset, and Ybor City across the bay is there for anything louder.

Williamsburg goes quiet after dinner. Student pubs near the college and a few taprooms on the edge of town are about all there is, and a ghost walk is the typical late evening. For more, people drive to Norfolk or Richmond.

Both are flat lowlands shaped by water, but St. Petersburg's is the more rewarding to explore. The mangrove paddling trails at Weedon Island and Shell Key bring dolphins, rays and, in winter, manatees. Fort De Soto adds good birding, and fishing and sailing trips leave from the marinas.

Williamsburg's Tidewater is pine forest, marsh and broad estuaries. It is best seen by bike or car along the Colonial Parkway, on the Virginia Capital Trail, or by kayak on the Chickahominy with ospreys and bald eagles overhead. Its outdoor seasons are spring and autumn, while St. Petersburg's is winter.

Both make reasonable bases for a few outings, and the difference is in what you go to see. St. Petersburg's trips vary more in mood: the cigar-factory streets of Ybor City in Tampa, the Ringling mansion and museums in Sarasota, the Greek sponge docks at Tarpon Springs and the old beach villages of Anna Maria Island. Orlando's theme parks are at the limit of a day.

From Williamsburg the trips follow one historical thread. Jamestown and Yorktown are each about twenty minutes away, with the James River plantation houses, Richmond's Civil War sites and, at a stretch, Monticello further out. Both need a car.

Williamsburg is the stronger family base, because it pairs a large theme park and water park with history that children can join in. They can watch musket firings, march with the fife-and-drum parade, question a blacksmith and board replica ships at Jamestown and Yorktown. Family motels with pools are everywhere.

St. Petersburg's case rests on the beach, where shallow, gentle Gulf water suits toddlers, plus a hands-on children's museum and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Busch Gardens Tampa and Orlando are within reach but further off. In both places, the summer heat and the driving between sights are the hard parts.

Both have a small, walkable centre with car country around it. In St. Petersburg the pier, museums and Central Avenue are close together on foot, a trolley loop and a rapid bus reach St. Pete Beach, and the Pinellas Trail makes cycling easy in the cooler months.

You can walk Williamsburg's Historic Area, Merchants Square and the college campus end to end in about twenty minutes, and Duke of Gloucester Street is closed to cars by day. Its Amtrak station makes arriving easy, but the theme parks, outlets, Jamestown and Yorktown all call for a car.

Neither has luxury shopping, so the difference is in character. St. Petersburg is independent and arty, with vintage and record shops, galleries selling local glass and prints along Central Avenue, and a Saturday market in winter. For brand names you go to the malls in Tampa.

Williamsburg sells its history: pewter, silver, pottery and reproduction furniture made in eighteenth-century styles in the Historic Area, and Virginia gifts on Merchants Square. Out on Richmond Road are an outlet centre and a pottery store that travellers have stopped at for generations.

Williamsburg is somewhat easier on the budget. Motels and chain hotels along the main roads are plentiful and fairly priced outside summer weekends and the peak vacation weeks. Admission to the colonial sites and theme parks adds up quickly, though, so the combination passes are worth looking into.

In St. Petersburg the beaches and parks are free, but beachfront hotels are at their most expensive from February to April. Beach parking and a hire car add to the bill, and meals come with American tax and tips. Coming in summer, or staying downtown rather than on the sand, keeps costs down.

St. Petersburg has the fuller programme. The Mahaffey Theater hosts the Florida Orchestra and touring shows, and there are also a regional theatre company, a concert hall in a former church and live bands in bars at weekends. Tampa's large arts centre, for opera and ballet, is about half an hour away.

In Williamsburg most performances are part of the colonial experience: candlelit eighteenth-century recitals, period theatre and fife-and-drum corps on Duke of Gloucester Street, plus college concerts and plays in term. It is charming, but there is no professional orchestra or opera in town.

Watching the sun drop into the Gulf is St. Petersburg's nightly ritual, and it gives the city a slight edge for slowing down. The large historic beach hotels have resort spas, downtown adds day spas and yoga studios, and Pass-a-Grille's streets stay sleepy. Winter is the restful season, warm without the humidity. In summer, unwinding means an early swim and an afternoon indoors.

Williamsburg's calm is greener and further from the water. The historic inn and the golf resorts along the James have spas with the usual massages and pools. Early mornings on the empty colonial greens and slow drives down the wooded Colonial Parkway make for a gentle stay once you leave the theme-park crowds behind. Neither town has a bathing tradition to plan a trip around.