Chattanooga or Tampa?

These two are far apart. Chattanooga's swimming is in fresh water: small designated areas on Chickamauga Lake and at Harrison Bay, and cool creeks on the plateau. They are fine for a hot afternoon but no basis for a beach vacation.

Tampa's own bay shore is mostly seawall, but Clearwater, St Pete Beach, Fort De Soto and Caladesi Island are all under an hour away, with soft white sand and calm, warm water. Beach days are outings rather than the backdrop to the stay, unless you sleep on the islands.

Both cities feed you well for a few days without much at the top end, but Tampa has the stronger identity. The Cuban, Spanish and Sicilian heritage of the Ybor cigar workers shows in the salami-layered Cuban sandwich, deviled crab croquettes and old bakeries, with grouper and stone crab along the bay.

Chattanooga keeps to Southern comfort food: meat-and-three, barbecue, biscuits and catfish, best around the Southside and Main Street with its breweries. International choice is thin, and there are no food halls to browse, which Tampa does have.

Neither city is dense with sights, and each fills two or three days, but they tell different stories. Chattanooga's story is war and railways: the 1863 battlefields on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, the old Terminal Station, and the Hunter Museum's American art on its bluff above the river.

Tampa's heritage is immigrant and industrial, told through Ybor City's brick cigar factories, ironwork balconies and Latin social clubs, and through Henry Plant's minareted railway hotel, which looks more Moorish palace than Florida.

Tampa gives the bigger night out. Seventh Avenue in Ybor City has dance clubs that keep going late, SoHo offers polished cocktail patios, and Gasparilla turns the bayfront into a huge street party each winter.

Chattanooga's evenings revolve around breweries, cocktail bars and a few music bars on the Southside, with Station Street the busiest block. There is hardly any club culture and most places wind down early, which suits a relaxed drink better than a long night.

This is where Chattanooga pulls well ahead. Lookout, Signal and Raccoon mountains rise straight from town, the sandstone bluffs draw climbers from across the eastern states, and hang gliding, mountain biking, gorge paddling and the Ocoee whitewater are all close. Cloudland Canyon and Fall Creek Falls add waterfalls.

Tampa's land is flat, so its appeal is wildlife and water: kayaking through cypress swamp, paddling mangrove tunnels, winter manatees and the clear springs around Crystal River. It is pleasant, but gentler, and more about watching than doing.

Both need a car and both have a fair spread of outings. From Chattanooga the draw is bigger cities: Nashville and Atlanta are about two hours each way, and Huntsville's rocket centre, the Jack Daniel's distillery town and the Chickamauga battlefield are closer.

Tampa's outings are shorter drives to smaller places: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the Greek sponge docks at Tarpon Springs, the Ringling estate in Sarasota and the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings at Lakeland. The drives are easier, but no major city waits at the end.

Both suit children, but Tampa has more for them. A theme park pairing roller coasters with an African-themed animal park, a water park, ZooTampa, the Florida Aquarium and shallow Gulf beaches can fill a week, and Orlando's parks are within reach for a longer day.

Chattanooga is smaller and gentler. The Tennessee Aquarium, the steep Incline Railway, the underground waterfall and rock gardens on Lookout Mountain and the carousel in Coolidge Park make an easy long weekend. Summer heat needs planning in both.

Chattanooga is the easier of the two to manage without a car, at least in the centre. Its compact downtown links the aquarium, Bluff View and the Southside on foot, the Walnut Street Bridge crosses to the North Shore, and a free electric shuttle runs the length of downtown. Lookout Mountain and the trails still need a car.

In Tampa, the walkable part is limited to downtown, the Riverwalk and the streetcar out to Ybor City. Everything else, including the beaches and Busch Gardens, means a drive, and rush-hour traffic on the bridges and interstates adds time.

Neither is a shopping destination, though Tampa has a little more range: a large upscale mall, the open-air boutiques of Hyde Park Village and cigars still rolled by hand in Ybor City. Chattanooga's best are the small shops and outdoor-gear stores on Frazier Avenue, plus the converted railway warehouses of Warehouse Row.

Costs are much the same: moderate by American standards, and not cheap for anyone coming from abroad. In both, tax and tipping lift restaurant bills and a hire car is an extra cost.

The pressure points differ. In Chattanooga it is the paid attractions on Lookout Mountain and the aquarium, offset by free trails and a free shuttle. In Tampa the theme parks are a bigger outlay and beach hotels rise in winter and spring, while Cuban sandwich counters keep lunch cheap and summer is the cheaper season.

Tampa has the fuller programme. The Straz Center hosts touring Broadway musicals, opera, ballet and plays, the Florida Orchestra performs there, the 1926 Tampa Theatre mixes films and concerts, and arena tours stop downtown.

Chattanooga's offer is smaller: touring shows and its own symphony and opera at the gilded Tivoli Theatre, community theatre on the North Shore and bluegrass or Americana in Southside bars. Visitors who travel for music usually head on to Nashville.

Chattanooga lets you slow down in town itself. You can spend an afternoon on the quiet riverfront or on a porch in Bluff View, in a small city that never feels hurried. Spas are limited to hotel spas and a few day spas, and most visitors come to be active anyway.

In Tampa the calm lies outside the humid, car-bound city, on the Gulf islands across the bay, where days revolve around sunsets and long lunches. A few of its resort spas are substantial, but neither city has a bathing tradition.