West Palm Beach or Palm Beach?

Both share the same Gulf Stream water, warm and clear all year, so the difference is how close you sleep to it. In Palm Beach the Atlantic is the town's eastern edge, with the Municipal Beach a short walk from Worth Avenue and Phipps Ocean Park further south, though seawalls and private estates hide much of the shore and some stretches shrink at high tide.

West Palm Beach faces the calm lagoon instead, so every beach day starts with a bridge crossing. In return it sits centrally for the wider sand of Singer Island and Juno, the livelier public beach at Lake Worth, and the boat ride out to Peanut Island's sheltered snorkelling.

Neither has a food culture to travel for, and the split is one of style. Palm Beach means formal rooms, long terrace lunches off Worth Avenue and dress codes, with stone crab and grouper done reliably well.

West Palm Beach is looser and a little more varied: casual places on Clematis Street and in Northwood, Cuban and Haitian bakeries away from the centre, and the waterfront green market on winter Saturdays. It is where you eat when you want shorts rather than a jacket.

The sights are shared between the two banks of the lagoon, so a stay in either covers the same short list in two or three days. Palm Beach holds the Gilded Age heritage: Flagler's Whitehall, Mizner's tiled vias, Bethesda-by-the-Sea and the estates along South Ocean Boulevard, best seen by bike.

West Palm Beach has the Norton Museum of Art, with its American, European and Chinese collections, and the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens. Its own downtown is largely modern, so the architecture lives on the island.

Both are low-key after dark, but only one has a night out within walking distance. Palm Beach offers a drink in a grand hotel bar, with much of its social life behind private-club doors and the streets quiet by eleven.

West Palm Beach is where Clematis Street and Rosemary Square are: rooftop terraces, cocktail and sports bars and a couple of dance spots that fill at weekends, plus relaxed neighbourhood bars in Northwood. Staying here means walking home rather than driving back across the bridge.

The outdoors is identical for both: the Blue Heron Bridge shore dive with its seahorses and octopus, reefs close offshore, the Loxahatchee refuge's alligators and wading birds, and turtle beaches to the north. From Palm Beach the Lake Trail under banyans and palms starts at the door, which makes an early ride before the heat easy.

West Palm Beach is the nearer starting point for Grassy Waters Preserve on its western side and for kayaking and paddleboarding on the lagoon.

The same outings serve both: Miami's Art Deco South Beach and Little Havana, Fort Lauderdale's canals, Delray's main street and Morikami gardens, and Jupiter's lighthouse. The practical difference is that West Palm Beach has the station for the fast train south, so Miami is a car-free day from downtown. From the island it means a bridge crossing first, and either way the nearby coast offers more resort towns than real changes of scene.

Families find much the same mix, but West Palm Beach is the easier fit. Palm Beach is calm and safe, yet its formal restaurants and boutiques are built for adults, and children can feel they are on their best behaviour all day.

The zoo, the science centre and aquarium, the free Manatee Lagoon and the drive-through Lion Country Safari to the west are all on the mainland, and downtown has a waterfront splash fountain and playgrounds. In both, summer storms and the need for a car shape the days.

West Palm Beach is the easier place to manage without a car. Its compact downtown is linked by a free trolley, and it has both the fast train to Miami and the slower Tri-Rail commuter line, so longer trips need no driving.

Palm Beach is lovely on foot around Worth Avenue and Royal Poinciana Way and ideal by bike along the Lake Trail, but anything beyond the island, from the zoo to the northern beaches, means a car or ride-hailing.

Shopping here is one street, and it belongs to Palm Beach: Worth Avenue's luxury houses, jewellers and courtyard boutiques, plus consignment shops selling designer pieces from local wardrobes. Staying on the island puts it at the door. West Palm Beach balances that with Antique Row's long strip of furniture and decorative-arts dealers, the open-air chain stores of Rosemary Square and a big mall a short drive north.

Neither is cheap, but West Palm Beach is the gentler bill. Palm Beach ranks among the most expensive resort towns in the country, with island hotels in winter priced far above big-city norms and restaurants aimed at a very wealthy clientele.

Staying in West Palm Beach and driving or cycling over is the usual way round that, though its own rooms still climb from December to April and a hire car adds up. In both, summer brings much lower rates in exchange for heat and storms.

Both draw on the same winter season, and the main stages are in West Palm Beach: the Kravis Center with touring musicals, orchestras, ballet and Palm Beach Opera, Palm Beach Dramaworks on Clematis Street, and a large outdoor amphitheatre west of town for big rock and pop tours. Palm Beach's own contribution is the more intimate chamber concerts and talks at the Society of the Four Arts. Summer is thin on either side.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so wellness on either side of the lagoon means a spa rather than a public bath. Palm Beach has the deeper offer. Its oceanfront resorts run large spas with salt-water pools, long treatment menus and fitness programmes, and the island's manicured quiet does the rest. It is the place to build a whole stay around rest, as long as the bill is no concern, since nothing here is communal or cheap.

West Palm Beach is restful on a smaller scale. Its day spas and massage studios suit an hour's treatment rather than a full resort day, and the promenades along the lagoon make an easy early walk or evening stroll. Away from Clematis Street on weekend nights the pace is unhurried, and the big resort spas are only a short trip over the bridge when you want a longer session.