Atlanta or Cocoa Beach?

This is Cocoa Beach's whole reason for being, and Atlanta cannot compete. In Cocoa Beach the sand runs the full length of the barrier island and is a short walk from anywhere. There are surfboards, a pier and warm Atlantic water for much of the year. The surf brings rip currents, so families stay near the lifeguarded parks, and wilder dunes lie north towards Cape Canaveral.

Atlanta sits inland on the Piedmont plateau, four to five hours from either coast. The nearest thing to a beach day is the sandy shore of Lake Lanier or Lake Allatoona, pleasant on a hot weekend but nothing to plan a trip around.

Atlanta is the place to travel for food. You can eat fried chicken, collards and shrimp and grits in meat-and-three cafeterias and west-side soul food kitchens. Buford Highway's strip malls are full of Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican and Ethiopian cooking for local communities, and there are chef-led rooms in Inman Park and the Westside.

Cocoa Beach eats simply and well enough after a day outdoors. Expect grilled fish, Port Canaveral rock shrimp and fish tacos at dockside and open-air grills, with chain restaurants lining the main road. You won't find much range beyond that.

Atlanta has far more to see. Its heritage is weighted towards the civil rights movement: the King national historical park on Auburn Avenue and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights downtown are essential visits. Add the High Museum of Art, the Atlanta History Center and the Carter Library, and you have two or three full days.

Cocoa Beach has a pier and a beach and little else in town. Its one great spectacle is a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, watched from the sand. Visitors who want history or museums leave town to find them.

Atlanta is the clear choice for a night out. Southern hip-hop and trap give its big clubs a national name, Edgewood Avenue has dive bars and small dance floors, Midtown has one of the South's largest LGBTQ scenes, and Buckhead has dressier lounges. The catch is that each area is separate, so you take a ride between them rather than hopping from bar to bar.

In Cocoa Beach, going out means sports bars and decks with a cover band around the pier and the short downtown strip. It gets louder over spring break, but most nights are over well before the small hours.

Both are good for the outdoors, but in very different landscapes. Atlanta is a city of tall hardwoods with real terrain close by. You can climb the granite dome of Stone Mountain, take a float trip on the Chattahoochee or drive two hours to the Blue Ridge foothills, Amicalola Falls and the start of the Appalachian Trail.

Cocoa Beach is flat, and its nature is wildlife and water. You can paddle the mangrove islands of the Indian River Lagoon among manatees, see glowing plankton on summer nights, spot alligators and winter birds at Merritt Island, and catch easy surf. If you want to hike, choose Atlanta. If you want to paddle, Cocoa Beach is the better bet.

The two are about level, but they offer different kinds of outing. From Atlanta, the drives lead to pleasant, lesser-known places: the college town of Athens, Dahlonega's gold-rush square and vineyards, the antebellum houses of Madison and, further off, Chattanooga's riverfront and Lookout Mountain.

Cocoa Beach's list is shorter but has one outing nowhere else can match: the Kennedy Space Center, with the Saturn V and the shuttle Atlantis, half an hour north. Orlando's theme parks are an hour inland, and St Augustine's Spanish fort makes a long but rewarding day.

Both work well with children, in different ways. Atlanta has more to do on its own ground. There are the whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium, the gorillas at Zoo Atlanta, the dinosaurs at Fernbank and puppet shows in Midtown, though traffic and driving fill the gaps between them.

Cocoa Beach is simpler: lifeguarded sand, beginner surf lessons and condos with kitchens and pools. The space centre and Orlando's parks are within a day's reach, but in town there is little built for children apart from the beach.

You need a car in both, though Atlanta gives you a little more without one. Its MARTA rail line runs from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead, and the BeltLine's Eastside Trail links several neighbourhoods on foot. Everything else means motorways, which are notoriously jammed at rush hour.

Cocoa Beach is easy at the small scale: the sand is a short walk away and a bike covers downtown and the pier. Beyond that the buses are thin, and the nearest major airport is about an hour away in Orlando.

Atlanta has much more choice. Buckhead's two big malls on Peachtree Road and the boutiques of Buckhead Village cover department stores and luxury labels. Little Five Points adds vintage clothing and record shops, though nothing you couldn't find in other American cities.

In Cocoa Beach, shopping means surf gear: boards from local shapers, beachwear and souvenirs. For anything else, people drive to Cocoa Village's boutiques or the malls in Orlando.

Costs come out much the same, and both have the full American extras of tax and tips on meals and a hire car you can hardly do without. Atlanta's hotels undercut the coastal cities and its civil rights sites are free, but entry to the big family attractions is steep.

In Cocoa Beach, motels and older condos keep rooms reasonable in quiet weeks. Rates climb in spring and on launch weekends, though, and the space centre ticket and theme park admissions add up.

Atlanta has a proper performing arts calendar. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Alliance Theatre are at the Woodruff Arts Center, opera and ballet run full seasons, and touring Broadway shows come to the 1920s Fox Theatre. As a centre of hip-hop, R&B and gospel, the city also draws the major tours to its arenas.

Cocoa Beach's live music is mostly cover bands on beach-bar decks. A playhouse in Cocoa Village and an arts centre in Melbourne stage modest seasons, and serious concerts mean a trip to Orlando.

Neither is a spa destination, and they relax you in different ways. Atlanta's best option is the large Korean-style bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs, with hot and cold pools and lounging halls, some open round the clock. The city around them is busy and car-bound.

Cocoa Beach has only a few day spas and beach yoga classes. What it does have is an easy pace: early walks on the sand, sunsets over the river and quiet weekdays.