Boca Raton or Havana?

In Boca Raton the beach is close at hand: a run of public parks along the barrier island with soft pale sand, dunes and lifeguards, and at Red Reef Park a reef you can snorkel straight from the shore. The mood is quiet and green, more an early swim than a scene.

Havana's own shore is rock and sea wall, so a swim means a taxi half an hour east to the white sand of the Playas del Este. The water there is just as warm and clear, and weekends are livelier and more local, but facilities are simple and the beach is a day off rather than part of every day.

Neither city is a food destination, and the difference is one of style. Boca Raton offers polished, predictable dining in Mizner Park and the plazas, from steakhouses and sushi to stone crab, Key lime pie and a strong tradition of delis and bagels, with Delray's Atlantic Avenue nearby for more variety.

Havana's best meals come from paladares in old mansions and on rooftops, where roast pork, black beans and lobster can be inventive, though menus depend on what the kitchen can get. Its real strength is the bar: daiquiris, mojitos, aged rum and strong, sweet coffee.

Here the gap is wide. In Havana the whole old town is the sight: a UNESCO grid of colonial squares and baroque churches, the Morro and La Cabaña across the harbour, then the Capitolio, the art deco blocks of Centro and Vedado and two major museums, with restored and crumbling buildings side by side.

Boca Raton's story starts in the 1920s with Addison Mizner's Mediterranean Revival stucco and barrel tiles, best seen at the Old Town Hall, along with a respectable art museum and the Morikami gardens just north. A day or two covers it, and then a curious visitor heads to Palm Beach or Miami.

Havana's nights revolve around dancing. Old town rum bars stay open late, locals dance in earnest at the salsa clubs of Vedado and Miramar, and on warm evenings the Malecón becomes an open-air gathering place. The scene is spread out and unpolished, but it goes on late.

In Boca Raton an evening means dinner and a glass of wine at an outdoor table in Mizner Park, and most of the city is quiet before midnight. For a louder night, people go to Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, fifteen minutes north.

Both are flat, but Boca Raton gets far more out of its water. You can kayak or paddleboard in the Intracoastal mangroves, snorkel from the shore, fish the Gulf Stream on a charter boat, join turtle-nesting walks at Gumbo Limbo and see alligators in the Loxahatchee refuge about half an hour away.

In Havana the outdoors is mostly the Malecón and the shade of the Almendares river park. Real landscape begins at Las Terrazas, an hour west, with forest trails and river pools, and Viñales is a much longer trip.

Boca Raton sits in the middle of the Gold Coast. Palm Beach's Flagler Museum and Worth Avenue, Fort Lauderdale's canals and Miami's Art Deco district, Little Havana and Vizcaya are all within an hour or so, and several can be reached by train. The drawback is sameness: it is one coastal strip in different moods.

Close to Havana are Hemingway's Finca Vigía, the village of Cojímar and the rumba city of Matanzas. Cuba's best places, Viñales, Trinidad and Cienfuegos, are too far for a day and need a car with driver or a tour.

Boca Raton makes a family vacation easy. It has lifeguarded beaches with shade, a gentle reef for first snorkels, Gumbo Limbo's turtles, a children's science explorium and the playgrounds of Sugar Sand Park, all in a safe and orderly city, though every outing needs the car.

Havana offers warmth rather than facilities. Children are welcome everywhere and will enjoy the aquarium, classic-car rides and the fortress cannons. Broken pavements, heavy heat and baby supplies that are hard to find make it better suited to older children than to toddlers.

Havana is the easier city to manage without a car. Habana Vieja is compact and best walked, the Malecón links it to Vedado on foot, and taxis of every kind cover the rest, from classic American cars to shared almendrones and coco-taxis. Mind the uneven pavements after dark.

Boca Raton is spread along wide multi-lane roads with slow buses, so you will almost certainly need a hire car or ride-hailing. Its saving grace is the railway: Tri-Rail and Brightline make car-free trips to Miami and Fort Lauderdale realistic.

Shopping is a real pastime in Boca Raton. One of Florida's most upscale enclosed malls is full of designer labels and department stores, and Mizner Park and Royal Palm Place add open-air boutiques and galleries. It is polished and suburban rather than distinctive.

Havana has almost no fashion or brand shopping, and shop shelves can be sparse. What it sells is Cuba itself: cigars, aged rum, coffee, art from the studios of Habana Vieja and Vedado, and guayaberas and woodwork from the craft market by the harbour.

Havana makes a budget go much further, as long as you travel simply: rooms in casas particulares with breakfast, shared taxis, low museum fees and inexpensive music. State hotels and paladares priced for foreigners can cost as much as Southern Europe, and you need to bring cash.

Boca Raton is expensive in every season and most expensive from December to April, with a hire car and beach parking on top. Room rates fall in summer, and delis and self-catering help, but it never becomes cheap.

Music is where Havana leaves Boca Raton far behind. Son, salsa and rumba play live from midday in bars and courtyards, Vedado's jazz clubs host some of Cuba's best players, and the Ballet Nacional de Cuba performs at the Gran Teatro. The weekend rumba in the Callejón de Hamel and the Tropicana cabaret are the popular side.

Boca Raton's calendar is modest and mostly in winter: amphitheatre concerts in Mizner Park, Broadway-style musicals, recitals at Lynn University and a local ballet company. For bigger productions, people go to the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, but Boca Raton is the more restful of the two. Its resort hotels have full spas and pools, day spas and yoga studios are easy to find, and the whole city is quiet and well kept.

In Havana rest comes without a plan: a rocking chair in a colonial courtyard, a shaded balcony, the sea from the Malecón. The centre is noisy, hot and full of exhaust fumes and has few spas, so for a calmer stay choose a guesthouse in Vedado or Miramar.