Boca Raton or Chattanooga?

This is the widest gap between the two. Boca Raton has a string of public beach parks on the barrier island. South Beach Park is by downtown, at Red Reef Park you can snorkel a reef straight from the sand, and Spanish River Park has shade among the sea grape. Low-rise building and dunes keep the shore calm and green, and the Atlantic is warm every month.

Chattanooga is a river city far from any coast, so its swimming is in fresh water. There are small swimming areas on Chickamauga Lake and at Harrison Bay State Park, plus cool creek holes on the plateau. They are fine for a summer afternoon but nothing like a beach vacation.

The two eat about equally well, in very different styles. Boca Raton is polished and suburban: steakhouses, sushi and Italian dining rooms around Mizner Park, grouper and stone crab by the water, and a strong deli and bagel tradition from its Jewish community.

Chattanooga is Southern and casual, with meat-and-three plates, smoked brisket, catfish and grits, plus a cluster of craft breweries on the Southside. Neither has a market hall or street food, but Boca Raton has Delray Beach and Miami close by for more range.

Chattanooga has more to see. Its Civil War battlefields at Point Park on Lookout Mountain and along Missionary Ridge are part of the country's oldest national military park. Add the Hunter Museum of American Art, the old Terminal Station, the Walnut Street Bridge and the Bessie Smith Cultural Center, and you have two or three good days.

Boca Raton's story is younger and narrower. It rests on Addison Mizner's 1920s Mediterranean Revival stucco and arcades, the history museum in the Old Town Hall and a respectable art museum. The Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens is the highlight, and for serious culture you will head to Miami or Palm Beach.

Neither is a place for a big night out, but the evenings take different shapes. In Boca Raton they centre on dinner and a drink at the wine bars, cocktail lounges and restaurant patios around Mizner Park, and most of the city is quiet well before midnight. For something later and louder, Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach is about fifteen minutes north, and the clubs are in Fort Lauderdale or Miami.

Chattanooga leans to beer rather than wine, with brewery patios and cocktail and music bars on the Southside and Main Street. Station Street's short strip by the old railway terminal is the liveliest block. Students and young locals fill it at weekends and the bars stay open a little later, but there is little club culture and things are quiet well before the small hours.

Chattanooga is made for the outdoors in a way Boca Raton is not. Lookout, Signal and Raccoon Mountains rise above town, and its sandstone bluffs are one of the best climbing bases in the eastern United States. Hikers, mountain bikers and paddlers have the Tennessee River Gorge and Prentice Cooper State Forest close by, with Ocoee whitewater and Cloudland Canyon within about an hour.

Boca Raton is flat, so its outdoors happens on the water: kayaking the Intracoastal mangroves, snorkelling and diving the nearshore reef, fishing in the Gulf Stream and turtle walks at Gumbo Limbo. The Loxahatchee refuge adds alligators and wading birds about half an hour west.

Boca Raton has the easier outings. Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Delray Beach are all less than an hour away, and you can reach Miami's Art Deco district, Little Havana and Vizcaya by train. All of them, though, are the same coastal strip in different moods.

From Chattanooga, Nashville and Atlanta are each about two hours by car, which makes for long days. Huntsville's Space and Rocket Center, Lynchburg and Sewanee add more variety: music cities, spaceflight and small-town Tennessee rather than more of the same coast.

Both are safe and easy with children, but Chattanooga has more made for them. The Tennessee Aquarium, the Creative Discovery Museum, the Incline Railway, Ruby Falls and Rock City fill several days, and Coolidge Park's carousel and splash fountains are just across the Walnut Street Bridge.

Boca Raton's appeal is gentler. It has lifeguarded beaches, an easy first snorkel at Red Reef Park, the sea turtles at Gumbo Limbo and the playgrounds of Sugar Sand Park. Bigger attractions such as Lion Country Safari are an hour or more away by car.

Both cities need a car beyond the centre, but Chattanooga's centre is much easier on foot. The riverfront, the aquarium, Bluff View and the Southside are all within walking distance, the Walnut Street Bridge crosses to the North Shore and a free electric shuttle runs through downtown.

In Boca Raton only the blocks around Mizner Park are pleasant to walk, while beaches, malls and hotels are spread along wide roads and the buses are slow. Its one advantage is the train: Tri-Rail and Brightline make car-free days in Miami or Fort Lauderdale realistic, which Chattanooga cannot match.

Boca Raton takes shopping seriously. The enclosed mall west of downtown is one of the most upscale in Florida, with leading department stores and designer labels. Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place add boutique streets lined with palms, and Worth Avenue in Palm Beach is close for more.

Chattanooga's shopping is small-scale: the converted railway warehouses of Warehouse Row, independent boutiques and galleries on Frazier Avenue, and good outdoor-gear stores. Its big mall is for everyday chain stores, not something to plan a visit around.

Neither is cheap, but Chattanooga leaves the lighter bill. Hotels and casual meals cost less than in the big cities, and the trails, riverfront and downtown shuttle cost nothing. Aquarium and Lookout Mountain tickets still add up for a family.

Boca Raton is one of the wealthiest towns on the Florida coast, and from December to April its rooms and restaurants are priced to match, with beach parking and a hire car on top. Rates drop sharply in summer if you can take the heat and storms.

There is little between them, and both send serious fans elsewhere. Boca Raton's arts life follows the season, with open-air concerts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, Broadway-style musicals, conservatory recitals at Lynn University and ballet, mostly in winter. For bigger productions people go to the Kravis Center or Miami.

Chattanooga's programme runs through the year. It is centred on the gilded 1920s Tivoli Theatre and the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, and the bluegrass, country and Americana bands in small Southside bars give it a local flavour.

Boca Raton is the better place to rest. Its resort hotels have full spas and pools, day spas and yoga studios serve a health-conscious population, and the whole city moves at a slow, well-kept pace, though it has no baths or springs.

Chattanooga has a few hotel and day spas and a quiet riverfront, but people come here to be active. An afternoon on a porch in Bluff View is pleasant, but you would not choose the city for a wellness break.