Cocoa Beach or Fort Lauderdale?

Both towns sit on a barrier island with one long strip of pale sand, so the real difference is the water. Cocoa Beach faces open ocean, with greenish water, steady small surf and rip currents to watch for. That suits surfers better than swimmers, and in winter the sea is too cool for most people.

Fort Lauderdale is better for swimming. The water is clearer and stays warm through the winter, lifeguard towers line the promenade, and at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea there is a reef close enough to snorkel from the shore. What Cocoa Beach has in its favour is the wilder, emptier sand towards Cape Canaveral.

Neither is a food destination, but Fort Lauderdale gives you more choice. Cocoa Beach eats at open-air grills and dockside seafood houses on the Banana River, with Port Canaveral rock shrimp as the local speciality and chain restaurants along the main road.

Fort Lauderdale adds stone crab claws in winter, a proper row of sit-down terraces on Las Olas, and the Jamaican, Haitian and Cuban cooking of Broward's inland suburbs. Miami's restaurants are also under an hour away.

In Cocoa Beach there is almost nothing to visit in town. Its one great sight is a rocket climbing away from Cape Canaveral, watched from the sand. Fort Lauderdale is no museum city either, but it fills a curious day: the Bonnet House and its gardens, the pioneer Stranahan House on the New River and the NSU Art Museum on Las Olas.

Cocoa Beach has one kind of evening: a drink on a beach deck near the pier with a cover band playing, and on most nights everyone goes home early. That is pleasant after a day in the surf, but there is nowhere to go on to afterwards, and anything bigger means the drive to Orlando, about an hour inland.

Fort Lauderdale lets you pick the mood. You can have sundowners at the A1A beach bars, stay out late with a younger crowd on Himmarshee Street, sit over wine on the Las Olas terraces, or see the drag shows along Wilton Drive. It has few clubs either, but Miami is close enough for a bigger night.

The two are equally good for the outdoors, but in different ways. Cocoa Beach is the wilder of the two. You can kayak the Indian River Lagoon among manatees and dolphins, paddle through glowing water on summer nights, see alligators and winter birdlife at Merritt Island and find turtles nesting on Canaveral's undeveloped dunes, and its gentle breaks are good for learning to surf.

In Fort Lauderdale the best of nature is on and under the sea: diving on reefs and sunken wrecks close to shore, sport fishing for sailfish, and paddling the canals past waterfront mansions. The Everglades are less than an hour west. In both places, autumn to spring is the season for being outdoors.

Cocoa Beach has the single most memorable outing: the Kennedy Space Center, with the Saturn V and the shuttle Atlantis. Orlando is about an hour inland. After that there is only Cocoa Village for a half day and a long drive to St Augustine.

Fort Lauderdale's list is longer. You can reach Miami's Art Deco district, Wynwood and Little Havana by car or fast train, visit Palm Beach and the Flagler Museum to the north, and get to Key Largo at the limit of a day. It is slightly ahead on variety, though neither has many historic towns within easy reach.

Cocoa Beach has the edge, though most of its appeal lies outside town. Within it there is little made for children beyond the sand and the pier. The open surf can pull hard, so families with young swimmers should stay near the lifeguards by the pier and in the town parks. What tips the balance is the kind of day out a child remembers for years, a rocket climbing off the Cape or a day among the theme parks inland.

Fort Lauderdale is better at keeping children busy on the spot. It has gentler, clearer water off a broad beach with showers and parks behind it, the hands-on Museum of Discovery and Science with its aquarium, a butterfly garden and aviary, and alligators seen from an Everglades airboat. In both places, summer heat and afternoon lightning shape the day.

You need a car in both, but less so in Fort Lauderdale. Cocoa Beach is one long main road. A bicycle covers downtown and the pier, the buses are little use, and everything else, including the airport in Orlando, is a drive.

In Fort Lauderdale you can stay within the triangle of beach, Las Olas and downtown and get about by water taxi and free trolley, and trains to Miami and the Palm Beaches make day trips possible without a car.

Shopping in Cocoa Beach is surf gear and not much else, led by the huge Ron Jon Surf Shop, a landmark on the main road since the 1960s. Fort Lauderdale is good for an easy afternoon among the boutiques and resort-fashion shops of Las Olas, and out west in Sunrise is one of the largest outlet malls in the country, which is what really draws shoppers.

Neither is cheap. Both have full American menu prices plus tips, and most visitors hire a car. Cocoa Beach is easier on the budget, with motels and older condos affordable outside the busiest weeks, though spring and launch weekends push rates up.

Fort Lauderdale costs more for most of the year, especially in the winter high season, and beach parking and cocktails add up. Its cheap season is the hot, stormy summer.

Fort Lauderdale offers a real evening out: touring Broadway musicals, ballet and concerts at the Broward Center on the New River, plus the Parker Playhouse and a few venues for touring bands. In Cocoa Beach live performance mostly means cover bands on the decks. For more, you drive to the regional arts centre in Melbourne or the community playhouse in Cocoa Village.

The two differ most when it comes to proper pampering. Cocoa Beach has a handful of day spas, massage studios and yoga classes on the sand, and anyone wanting a spa resort drives inland to the hotels around Orlando. What it does well is simple rest: early walks on the beach, sunsets over the Banana River and quiet weekdays.

Fort Lauderdale is the better choice for a stay built around spas, with full spas in the big beachfront resorts and day spas along Las Olas. Its warm, dry winter also makes slow mornings on the promenade a real pleasure while the north is cold.