Asheville or St. Pete Beach?

This is the biggest difference between the two. St. Pete Beach is built around a barrier-island beach of pale quartz sand along gentle Gulf water. Upham Beach and Pass-a-Grille are on the doorstep, and the undeveloped sands of Fort De Soto and Shell Key are close by.

Asheville is hours from the sea. Its swimming is a summer half-day at Sliding Rock, a float on the French Broad or the small sandy beach at Lake Lure, and the water stays cool even in July.

Asheville is the stronger place to eat and drink. Dozens of taprooms are spread across downtown, the South Slope and West Asheville, and the cooking draws on Appalachian farms, from trout and ramps to barbecue and biscuits. The best tables do get booked up at weekends.

St. Pete Beach is about relaxed seafood by the water: grouper sandwiches, smoked fish spread and stone crab in season, eaten on a deck at sunset. Away from that, Gulf Boulevard is mostly chains, and anyone after craft beer or more ambitious cooking drives over to St. Petersburg.

Asheville has far more to see. The Biltmore Estate, with its Olmsted gardens, fills a day on its own. The downtown of Art Deco and Beaux-Arts buildings, City Hall and the Basilica of St Lawrence fill another, with the Thomas Wolfe Memorial and the art museum on Pack Square to round it off.

St. Pete Beach offers the pink Don CeSar hotel, Pass-a-Grille's old cottages and the batteries at Fort De Soto. That makes an afternoon at most, and the serious museums are across the bay.

Neither town is built for a late night, but Asheville gives you more to do. Its taprooms, cocktail bars and dive bars are within walking distance of each other downtown and on the South Slope, with a looser local scene on Haywood Road. Most places quieten around midnight.

In St. Pete Beach the evening peaks at sunset, with tiki decks and cover bands along Gulf Boulevard, and most people are done soon after dark. For anything bigger, it is half an hour's drive to downtown St. Petersburg.

Asheville is the clear choice for the outdoors. It has ridge hikes over grassy balds, Mount Mitchell, the Great Smokies, mountain biking in Pisgah and whitewater on the Nantahala and Pigeon rivers. The rhododendron in spring and the October colour make the seasons part of the reason to go.

St. Pete Beach is flat and watery. Its outdoors means paddling through mangroves, watching dolphins and manatees, fishing and spotting roseate spoonbills. It is pleasant, but there is no hiking, and the summer heat pushes everything into the early morning.

St. Pete Beach has the better outings, because real cities are close. The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg is half an hour away, and Ybor City in Tampa, the Ringling estate in Sarasota and the Greek sponge docks at Tarpon Springs are all easy drives.

Asheville's day trips are mostly into the landscape. Hendersonville, Brevard and Black Mountain are small towns, and Cherokee is the stand-out for its museum of the region's first people. Greenville is the only sizeable city within easy reach.

Asheville suits families with children who like animals and fresh air. The Western North Carolina Nature Center keeps black bears, red wolves and otters, and the farmyard and grounds at Biltmore can fill a morning with younger ones. Downtown is safe and unhurried, but there is no big attraction in town, and the nearest theme park, Dollywood, is two hours away over the mountains.

St. Pete Beach comes out ahead for most families, because the main attraction starts at the hotel door. Shelling on Shell Key and the old fort and fishing pier at Fort De Soto vary the beach days, and Orlando is within reach for one long outing. The catch is summer: strong sun and afternoon storms mean the beach works best early and late, so plan the middle of the day indoors.

Both are car towns, but in different ways. Asheville has a compact, hilly downtown that is good on foot. Beyond it, the Biltmore Estate, the Parkway and the trailheads are reached on slow, winding mountain roads that clog up on October weekends.

St. Pete Beach is one long, flat strip with a beach trolley and easy cycling between Pass-a-Grille and Corey Avenue. Every day trip, though, means crossing the causeways by car.

Asheville is far better for shopping if you like handmade things. Pottery, glass and weaving fill the River Arts District studios and the downtown galleries, and the Grove Arcade and Lexington Avenue add bookshops, vintage clothing and outdoor gear.

St. Pete Beach sells swimwear, beach gear and souvenirs, plus a few boutiques on Corey Avenue. For anything more, you go inland.

Both are pricey American getaways, and both need a hire car, so the cost difference comes down to timing. Asheville's rates jump on leaf-season weekends, and Biltmore is an expensive day out, but its trails and waterfalls are free and midweek or winter stays are easier on the budget.

St. Pete Beach is at its most expensive from February to April. An older motel a block back from the sand, or a late-summer stay, keeps costs down, and the beach itself costs nothing beyond parking.

Asheville is the place for live music. Touring Americana and indie acts play most nights, and bluegrass jams and buskers fill the streets. In summer there are fiddle and clogging evenings at Shindig on the Green, and the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival has run since 1928.

St. Pete Beach offers cover bands and acoustic sets at the beach bars. For the orchestra, theatre or a touring musical, you drive to St. Petersburg or Tampa.

Asheville has the deeper tradition of rest. Its history as a mountain health retreat lives on in yoga, retreats and the big spas of the hillside resort hotels. Hot Springs, with its riverside mineral tubs, is about forty minutes away.

St. Pete Beach has resort spas and day spas but no bathing culture. What it offers instead is slow days on the sand and a sunset that people stop to watch, especially at quiet Pass-a-Grille.