Boca Raton or Cocoa Beach?

Both have fine pale sand and warm summer water, but the shore feels different in each. Boca Raton's coast is a chain of separate beach parks reached over bridges. Red Reef Park has a reef you can snorkel from the shore, and Spanish River Park has shady picnic ground. Dunes and limits on high-rise building keep it green and calm, and the sea stays warm enough to swim even in January.

Cocoa Beach is one long, unbroken strand down the barrier island, never more than a few streets from your room. The water is greener and less clear, and the steady small waves make it a surfing beach first, with fishing off the pier and wilder sand within a short drive north and south. Its winter sea is too cool for most swimmers.

Boca Raton gives more choice. Mizner Park and the plazas have steakhouses, Italian dining rooms, sushi and waterfront grouper and stone crab, and the large Jewish community supports good delis and bagel bakeries. Delray Beach's Atlantic Avenue is close by when you want more variety.

Cocoa Beach eats simply: fish tacos, Port Canaveral rock shrimp, raw bars and big breakfasts at open-air grills and dockside places on the Banana River. It is satisfying after a day in the sun, but there is no fine dining or food culture to plan around.

Boca Raton has more to show, though not a great deal. Addison Mizner's 1920s Mediterranean Revival town is still visible in its stucco arcades and the Old Town Hall, which holds the history museum. There is an art museum in Mizner Park, and the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, just north, is well worth an afternoon.

Cocoa Beach has almost nothing in this line beyond its wooden pier. Its one real cultural moment is a rocket launch watched from the sand, and for museums you have to leave town.

Neither town stays up late, and the evenings feel quite different. Boca Raton's nights centre on dinner, wine bars and cocktail lounges around Mizner Park, and the livelier Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach is about fifteen minutes away.

Cocoa Beach goes out in flip-flops, to beach bars, sports bars and decks with cover bands near the pier, and spring break brings a louder, younger crowd. For clubs, Boca has Fort Lauderdale and Miami fairly close, while Cocoa Beach has to drive an hour to Orlando.

Cocoa Beach has richer wild country on its doorstep. The Indian River Lagoon behind the town has mangrove islands, manatees, dolphins and bioluminescent water on summer nights. Merritt Island refuge and Canaveral National Seashore add alligators, winter birdlife and untouched dunes, and the surf is reliable enough for beginners.

Boca Raton's outdoors are more about the sea. You can snorkel and dive the nearshore reef, fish for sailfish in the Gulf Stream and paddle the Intracoastal. Gumbo Limbo's boardwalks and turtle walks are close by, and the Loxahatchee refuge offers a first look at Everglades country about half an hour inland.

Boca Raton has more to choose from because it sits between several cities. Palm Beach's Flagler Museum and Worth Avenue are to the north, and Fort Lauderdale's canals and Delray Beach are close by. Miami's Art Deco district, Little Havana and Vizcaya are about an hour away by train or car.

Cocoa Beach has fewer options, but one is unmatched: the Kennedy Space Center, with the Saturn V and the shuttle Atlantis, is about half an hour north. Orlando's theme parks and Winter Park are an hour inland. St Augustine's Spanish fort makes a long day out.

Cocoa Beach has the edge with children. It offers a wide lifeguarded beach, surf lessons everywhere and condos with kitchens and pools, and above all rocket launches, the space centre and Orlando's theme parks within a short drive. The surf and its currents need watching, though.

Boca Raton is calmer and has more to do in town. Red Reef's shallow reef is a gentle first snorkel, there are sea turtles at Gumbo Limbo, and the Children's Science Explorium and Sugar Sand Park are good for a morning. The big attractions, however, are long drives away.

You need a car in both towns, but for different reasons. Boca Raton is spread along wide multi-lane roads with long gaps between its beaches, hotels and shops. In return, its Tri-Rail and Brightline stations make car-free trips to Miami and Fort Lauderdale easy.

Cocoa Beach is a narrow strip where the sand is a short walk away and a bicycle covers the town and the pier. However, the space centre, the refuges and the nearest major airport, in Orlando, all mean driving.

This is where the two differ most. Boca Raton treats shopping as a pastime: its enclosed mall west of downtown is among Florida's most upscale, and Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place add palm-lined streets of boutiques and galleries. Still, it all feels suburban and polished, without markets or local crafts.

Cocoa Beach sells surf culture. A huge surf store has been a landmark on the main road since the 1960s, and local shapers make boards, but beyond beachwear and gifts you need Cocoa Village or Orlando.

Cocoa Beach is the cheaper stay. Motels and older condos keep rooms within reach for much of the year, although launch weekends and spring push rates up. Boca Raton is priced for a wealthy crowd, with winter hotel rates close to those of big international cities and fees to park at the beaches. Only its summer rates bring it closer to Cocoa Beach.

Boca Raton has a real if small performing arts season in winter. It includes open-air concerts and the Festival of the Arts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, Broadway-style musicals, Lynn University's conservatory recitals and a local ballet company, and West Palm Beach's Kravis Center is close by.

In Cocoa Beach, live performance mostly means cover bands on bar decks. There is a playhouse in Cocoa Village and a regional arts centre in Melbourne, and Orlando for anything bigger.

Neither town has a bathing tradition, so the difference is in comfort. Boca Raton's resort hotels have full spas with pools and treatment rooms, and its quiet, orderly streets suit early nights. Cocoa Beach has a few day spas and beach yoga classes, and its calm comes from walks at dawn and sunsets over the Banana River rather than from pampering.