Boca Raton or Gatlinburg?

Boca Raton has a real coastline: a string of public beach parks on the barrier island with pale, soft sand. Dunes stand where you might expect tower blocks, and the reef at Red Reef Park is close enough to snorkel from the beach. The Atlantic is warm enough to swim in every month.

Gatlinburg has no beach at all. Swimming there means cold, clear river water in the national park, tubing near Townsend or the lakeshore at Douglas Lake, and the rivers run fast after rain. For most visitors, the cabin hot tub is the only water they sit in.

Neither is a place to travel to for food, but Boca Raton eats better. It has grouper, stone crab and Key lime pie at waterfront seafood places, a strong deli and bagel tradition, and polished Italian and sushi restaurants around Mizner Park. Gatlinburg feeds its crowds along the Parkway with pancake houses, barbecue and fudge, and its moonshine tasting rooms are more novelty than cooking.

Gatlinburg's Appalachian dishes, such as trout, country ham and stack cake, are worth looking for but are scattered around. In both places keen eaters end up driving out: to Delray Beach or Miami from Boca Raton, and to Knoxville or Asheville from Gatlinburg.

Boca Raton's sights come from one chapter of its history, the 1920s land boom, when Addison Mizner gave the town its stucco arcades and barrel-tile roofs. The Old Town Hall holds the local history museum, and the art museum in Mizner Park has a respectable collection. Just north, the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens tells the story of an early Japanese farming colony and is the visit that stays with you. The list is short, but it is more than Gatlinburg can offer.

In Gatlinburg the centre is a strip of attractions with an observation tower, and it has little history to show. Its heritage lives in the working studios of the Great Smoky Arts and Crafts Community and in the cabins, mills and churches that mountain families left at Cades Cove and Elkmont. Those are drives into the park, not sights in town.

Boca Raton offers more of a night out, though it is mostly dinner followed by a cocktail or a glass of wine on a terrace around Mizner Park. There are student bars near Florida Atlantic University, and Delray Beach's Atlantic Avenue is fifteen minutes away for something later and louder.

In Gatlinburg an evening means a walk along the lit Parkway, a moonshine tasting and an early return to the cabin. There are no clubs, and the strip is empty by late night.

Here Gatlinburg is in another league. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park starts where the Parkway ends. There is deep hardwood forest, waterfall walks to Laurel Falls and Grotto Falls, the climb up Mount LeConte and Clingmans Dome at close to 2,025m, with black bears and grazing deer in Cades Cove. Spring wildflowers and October colour change the scene through the year.

Boca Raton is entirely flat, so its outdoors is on the water: kayaking through the mangroves of the Intracoastal, snorkelling the nearshore reef, fishing in the Gulf Stream and turtle walks at Gumbo Limbo. The Loxahatchee refuge adds alligators and wading birds, but there is nothing to climb.

Boca Raton has a slightly better range of outings because it sits between Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, and you can reach Miami by train without a car. The catch is that they are all much alike, each another stretch of the same coast.

Gatlinburg's outings are more varied but farther apart. Asheville and the Biltmore Estate are an hour and a half away, Cherokee and its museum lie over Newfound Gap, and Knoxville has its old market square. Closer in are Pigeon Forge's theme park and outlets.

Gatlinburg is built for children. The Parkway has an aquarium, mirror mazes, alpine coasters and gondola rides up to mountaintop parks, and Dollywood with its water park is a short drive away. The national park adds creek wading, junior ranger badges and bears seen from the car. The price is high-season traffic and queues.

Boca Raton is quieter and very safe. It has lifeguarded beaches, the gentle first snorkel at Red Reef Park, the turtle tanks at Gumbo Limbo and the playgrounds of Sugar Sand Park, but anything bigger means an hour or more in the car.

You need a car in both, but Gatlinburg is easier to manage without one for a while. Its downtown strip is compact, a trolley loops out to Pigeon Forge, and if you stay in a town-centre hotel you can leave the car parked for a day or two. Hillside cabins, trailheads and leaf-season traffic soon put you back behind the wheel.

Boca Raton is spread along wide multi-lane roads with slow buses, and only the downtown area around Mizner Park is good on foot. Its one advantage is rail: Tri-Rail and Brightline make car-free days in Miami or Fort Lauderdale realistic.

Boca Raton is the place for serious shopping. Its upscale enclosed mall is full of designer labels and department stores, Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place have open-air boutiques, and Worth Avenue in Palm Beach is close by. It is polished rather than characterful.

Gatlinburg's Parkway mostly sells fudge, T-shirts and novelty knives, and the outlets in Pigeon Forge cover the brands. What it has that Boca Raton lacks is handmade work: quilts, pottery, brooms and woodwork bought from the makers' own studios on the Arts and Crafts loop.

Gatlinburg is the cheaper of the two. Shared cabins and older motels are good value, especially midweek and in winter, meals are casual and the national park costs little to enjoy. The money goes on Parkway attractions and Dollywood tickets, and rates jump in October, at Thanksgiving and around Christmas and New Year.

Boca Raton is expensive from December to April. Hotels and restaurants are priced for a wealthy crowd, and car hire and beach parking add to the bill. Summer rates drop, and delis and self-catering help, but it is never a budget stay.

The two are about level here, but what is on offer differs. Boca Raton's programme is more conventional: open-air concerts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, Broadway-style musicals, classical recitals at Lynn University and a local ballet company, mostly in winter. For anything bigger, people go to the Kravis Center or to Miami.

Gatlinburg's entertainment is folksier. Bluegrass and country musicians play in the tasting rooms and on the street, and Pigeon Forge stages dinner shows, gospel revues and magic acts most nights of the year. Mountain music runs through all of it, and fans of classical music head to Knoxville.

Boca Raton is the better choice for pampering. Its big resort hotels have full spas, and day spas and yoga studios serve a health-conscious town that is calm all over. Neither place has a tradition of public baths or hot springs.

In Gatlinburg, rest comes from the setting rather than from treatments: a hillside cabin with a hot tub on the deck and mist on the ridges. Stay above the Parkway, though, because the town centre is crowded and noisy.