Asheville or Clearwater?

There is no contest here. Swimming around Asheville means cold mountain water: Sliding Rock, the pools below Pisgah's waterfalls, tubing on the French Broad and a small sandy strip at Lake Lure. All of these are fine on a hot summer afternoon, but none of them adds up to a beach vacation.

Clearwater is built around its beach, a long barrier-island strand of fine white sand that shelves gently into calm, shallow Gulf water. Pier 60 is the busy centre. Sand Key, Honeymoon Island and wild Caladesi Island give quieter stretches close by.

Asheville eats and drinks far better. Its breweries cluster downtown, on the South Slope and in West Asheville. Its kitchens build on Appalachian produce such as trout, ramps, heirloom corn and proper barbecue, with the WNC Farmers Market behind them. Food from beyond the American South is the gap.

Clearwater keeps things simple: grouper sandwiches, shrimp baskets and stone crab at dockside shacks, with sunset drinks as the real ritual. Chain restaurants dominate the beachfront, so a Greek meal in Tarpon Springs or a drive across the bay is where the better eating lies.

Asheville has two real anchors. The Biltmore Estate, a Gilded Age château with Olmsted gardens, fills a full day. The downtown of Art Deco and Beaux-Arts buildings is the other. The Folk Art Center and Thomas Wolfe's boarding-house home round out two or three days of sightseeing.

Clearwater has a restored 1920s theatre and a few older buildings on the bluff, but nothing to plan a day around. For museums and architecture it depends on St Petersburg and Tampa.

Neither city suits a long night of dancing, but Asheville has the better evening. Its taprooms, cocktail bars and dives sit within walking distance downtown and on the South Slope. Haywood Road has a looser local strip, and the summer drum circle in Pritchard Park draws a crowd. Most places wind down around midnight.

Clearwater's nights begin with the sunset at Pier 60 and drift to tiki decks and cover bands by the water. It gets louder in spring, but a big night out means driving to Ybor City.

Asheville is the place for landscape. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs along the city's edge and Pisgah National Forest starts just south of town, with its trails and mountain-biking. Mount Mitchell and the Great Smokies are each about an hour away, and there is white water on the Nantahala and Pigeon rivers. Spring rhododendrons and October colour give the year real seasons.

Clearwater's nature is flat and watery, and it is still rewarding. You can paddle mangrove channels, watch dolphins in the harbour, find manatees in winter and see ospreys on Caladesi Island. It is gentler, and the summer heat pushes most of it into the mornings.

Clearwater has the better excursions because it sits inside a large metropolitan area. The Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the old cigar factories of Ybor City, the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs and the Ringling Museum in Sarasota are all within about an hour, and Orlando is further off.

Asheville's outings are mostly small mountain towns and scenery: Hendersonville, Black Mountain, Brevard's waterfall country and the Cherokee museum. Greenville is the only sizeable town within easy reach. Both cities need a car for these trips.

Clearwater is the easier choice with children. The calm, lifeguarded water near Pier 60 suits small ones, as do the Clearwater Marine Aquarium with its rescued dolphins and turtles and the pirate boat trips. Busch Gardens and Adventure Island are about forty minutes away, and condos with kitchens make long stays simple.

Asheville works for active families rather than toddlers. Sliding Rock, river tubing, zip lines and the black bears at the nature centre fill the days well, but there is no zoo or theme park and a lot of driving between sights.

Both are car destinations with a small walkable core. In Asheville that core is a hilly downtown that reaches the South Slope breweries. Beyond it, the car is for winding mountain roads to Biltmore, the Parkway and the trailheads, and those roads clog on October weekends.

Clearwater's walkable part is the beach strip, helped by a trolley to Sand Key and a ferry to downtown, so a stay spent only on the beach can manage without a car. The rest is flat sprawl, and the causeway backs up on busy weekends.

Asheville is a real place to buy something. You can find pottery, glass, weaving and woodwork in the River Arts District studios and the downtown galleries, and the Folk Art Center shows the work of a long-running regional craft guild. There are independent bookshops and vintage clothing around the Grove Arcade and Lexington Avenue.

Clearwater offers beachwear, souvenirs and mainland malls, and natural sponges from Tarpon Springs are the one local buy. Neither city has luxury brands; from Clearwater, Tampa is the place for them.

Neither is cheap, and the costs fall differently. Asheville's hotels peak on autumn leaf weekends, Biltmore is a costly day out and a hire car is almost essential. The trails, waterfalls and Parkway are free, and midweek or winter stays cost less.

Clearwater is dearest on the beach in late winter and spring. Mainland motels, condos with kitchens and the free sand help, and summer brings lower room prices in exchange for heat and storms.

Asheville has the deeper music life, and it is rooted in Appalachian tradition. Bluegrass and old-time jams fill pubs and porches, buskers play downtown, and Shindig on the Green gives free summer evenings of fiddle music and clogging. The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival has run since 1928, and touring Americana and indie acts play most nights. The formal side is modest by comparison: a regional symphony, a few small theatres and touring shows at the civic auditorium.

Clearwater's stage life rests on two halls rather than a living music tradition. Ruth Eckerd Hall takes touring rock, Broadway tours and orchestral concerts, and the intimate 1920s Capitol Theatre downtown has smaller gigs. Outside those, the music is cover bands and acoustic sets in the beach bars. There is no resident opera or major theatre company, so bigger productions mean a drive to Tampa.

Asheville has a long history as a place to rest. Nineteenth-century health seekers came for its mountain air, and the city keeps that up with yoga, retreats and the large spas of its hillside resort hotels. Hot Springs has riverside mineral tubs, and the cool evenings on inn porches help too.

Clearwater's rest comes from the slow resort routine of pools, shaded balconies and long lunches, with hotel spas that are competent but unremarkable. Spring break and summer heat are when that calm is hardest to find.