Asheville or Cocoa Beach?

This is Cocoa Beach's whole reason for being. It has an unbroken strip of pale, firm sand along the barrier island, warm Atlantic water from late spring to autumn and steady small surf. Asheville has nothing like it, since the coast is hours away by car.

Asheville's swimming is a summer outing in mountain water: Sliding Rock, pools under waterfalls in Pisgah, floats on the French Broad and the small sandy shore at Lake Lure. It is refreshing, but the water stays cold, and it doesn't make a beach vacation.

Asheville is a genuine food town. It has dozens of breweries across downtown and the South Slope, Appalachian ingredients such as trout, ramps and heirloom corn on chef-led menus, and farmers' markets that show where the produce comes from. The international range is narrow and good tables fill up at weekends.

Cocoa Beach eats simply. Expect fried and grilled fish, rock shrimp from Port Canaveral and fish tacos at open-air grills and dockside seafood houses. It is pleasant after a day in the sun, but you won't plan your evenings around it.

Asheville has real sights. The Biltmore Estate, the Vanderbilts' vast château with its Olmsted gardens, fills a full day. The downtown streets of Art Deco and Beaux-Arts buildings, including City Hall and the Basilica of St Lawrence, are worth a slow walk, and the Thomas Wolfe Memorial and the Folk Art Center round out two or three days.

Cocoa Beach has the pier and very little else in town. Its standout experience is watching a rocket climb from Cape Canaveral, seen from the sand. For museums you have to drive somewhere else.

Neither town keeps late hours, but Asheville gives you more to do. Brewery taprooms, cocktail bars and dive bars sit within walking distance of each other downtown and on the South Slope, there are looser local bars along Haywood Road in West Asheville, and the Pritchard Park drum circle runs on summer Fridays.

Cocoa Beach means beach bars, sports bars and decks with cover bands around the pier. Spring break brings a louder crowd. For clubs, people drive to Orlando.

Asheville is surrounded by big country. The Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah National Forest, Mount Mitchell and the Great Smoky Mountains give you waterfall walks, ridge hikes over grassy balds, some of the country's best mountain biking and whitewater rafting. October colour and spring rhododendron add a strong seasonal pull.

Cocoa Beach's outdoors is flat and watery but rich in wildlife. You can kayak among manatees and dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon, paddle through glowing plankton on summer nights, see alligators and winter birds at Merritt Island and learn to surf on gentle breaks. There is no hiking terrain to speak of.

The two are evenly matched, but the outings are very different. Cocoa Beach has one outstanding trip in the Kennedy Space Center, with the Saturn V and the shuttle Atlantis. Orlando's theme parks are about an hour inland, and St Augustine's Spanish fort is a long day out.

Asheville's excursions are quieter and mostly lead into the landscape. Options include waterfall country around Brevard, the Cherokee museum and Oconaluftee village, the Carl Sandburg Home at Flat Rock, and orchards or a day in Greenville's riverside downtown.

Cocoa Beach is the simpler family choice. It has lifeguarded sand, surf lessons for beginners, condos with kitchens and pools, and the space centre and Orlando within easy reach. Summer lightning and rip currents still need watching.

Asheville works for active children. The Nature Center has bears and red wolves, and there are tubing, Sliding Rock, rope courses and the Biltmore farmyard. With no zoo or theme park in town and a lot of driving between sights, younger children may find it harder going.

You will want a car in both places, but Asheville gives you a little more on foot. Its compact, hilly downtown links to the South Slope and the River Arts District with only a short walk or ride. The trailheads, the Parkway and Biltmore still need wheels, along slow mountain roads.

Cocoa Beach is one long, thin strip along a main road. A bicycle covers the pier and downtown, but buses are sparse and the space centre, the refuge and the Orlando airport are all drives.

Asheville is the place to buy something handmade. It has pottery, glass, weaving and woodwork in downtown galleries and River Arts District studios, the guild showcase at the Folk Art Center, and independent boutiques and bookshops in the Grove Arcade and around Lexington Avenue.

Cocoa Beach sells boards, beachwear and souvenirs, led by a huge long-standing surf store on the main road. Anything beyond that means Cocoa Village or the Orlando malls.

Neither town is cheap, and the costs fall in different places. In Asheville, inns and hotels near downtown and Biltmore are expensive and rise sharply on autumn weekends, and the Biltmore ticket is a big one-off cost. The trails and the Parkway are free, though, and midweek or winter stays are noticeably cheaper.

Cocoa Beach has more motels and older condos within reach outside busy weeks. The costs that build up are the hire car, the space centre and any theme park days inland.

Asheville has a real music culture. Downtown venues host touring rock and Americana acts, bluegrass and old-time jams play in pubs, there are free summer fiddle-and-clogging evenings, and the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival has run since 1928. Theatre and the symphony are modest.

Cocoa Beach mostly offers cover bands on bar decks. For anything more ambitious, you'll need to drive to Melbourne's performing arts centre or to Orlando.

Asheville has a long history as a place to recover. Its old health-resort past lives on in yoga studios, retreats and the large spas of the hillside resort hotels. The mineral tubs at Hot Springs are under an hour away by the French Broad, and the mountain inns have quiet porches.

Cocoa Beach's version of rest is a dawn walk on the sand, a sunset over the river and a few day spas or beach yoga classes, with no bathing tradition behind it.