Cocoa Beach or Gatlinburg?

This is the widest gap between the two. Cocoa Beach sits on a barrier island with one long, firm strand running its whole length. The water is warm enough for swimming from late spring into autumn, the surf is steady and small, and there are lifeguarded stretches near the pier. The water is greenish and rip currents need respect, but the beach is the whole reason to be there.

Gatlinburg has no coast at all. In summer, swimming means cold river pools in the national park, tubing on the Little River near Townsend or the lakeshore at Douglas Lake, and the rivers can run fast after rain. For most cabin guests, the hot tub is the closest they get to a swim.

Neither town is worth travelling to for the food, but Cocoa Beach eats a little better because the sea supplies it. Expect rock shrimp from Port Canaveral, grilled fish, raw bars and fish tacos at dockside places on the Banana River.

Gatlinburg's Parkway runs on pancake houses, barbecue and family restaurants built for volume, and fudge shops and moonshine tasting rooms supply the local flavour. Good Appalachian cooking does exist around town, things like trout, country ham and stack cake, but you have to look for it. Keen eaters usually drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

Both towns have little conventional sightseeing, and neither has a museum in town worth planning around. What each offers instead is completely different. In Cocoa Beach it is the sight of a rocket launch arcing up from Cape Canaveral, watched from the sand. Gatlinburg has the Arts and Crafts Community loop of working studios and, out in the park, the log cabins, mills and churches of the mountain families at Cades Cove and Elkmont.

Cocoa Beach has the livelier evenings of the two, though only by beach-town standards. There are decks with cover bands and sports bars around the pier and the downtown strip, and a louder crowd arrives at spring break. It still winds down early, and anyone who wants a club has to drive to Orlando.

Gatlinburg barely goes out at all. An evening is a stroll along the lit Parkway, a moonshine tasting and perhaps a brewery terrace, then back to the cabin. By late night the strip is empty.

Gatlinburg is clearly ahead here. The national park starts where the Parkway ends, with hardwood forest, waterfall walks such as Laurel Falls, the Alum Cave route up Mount LeConte and the road to Clingmans Dome at close to 2,025m. Black bears and elk, spring wildflowers and October colour add to it, and rafting on the Pigeon River gives you a wet option.

Cocoa Beach's nature is flat and watery but has its own rewards. You can kayak among manatees and dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon, paddle through bioluminescent water on summer nights, watch birds and alligators at Merritt Island and see turtles nesting on the beach. There is nowhere to hike uphill, and the summer heat shortens the best season.

The two are about equal for day trips, but the outings point in different directions. From Cocoa Beach the highlight is the Kennedy Space Center half an hour north. Orlando's theme parks and calm Winter Park are an hour inland, and St Augustine's Spanish fort makes a long day out.

From Gatlinburg the draw is Asheville and the Biltmore Estate, Cherokee across Newfound Gap with its museum of the Eastern Band, and the heritage railway at Bryson City. One side offers rockets and theme parks, the other mountain heritage and a grand house.

Both are easy with children, but Gatlinburg is the more complete family base. The Parkway is lined with attractions made for them: an aquarium, mini golf, alpine coasters and chairlift rides up to treetop bridges. Dollywood is close by, and big cabins sleep several families together. The price is traffic, queues and tight parking in high season.

Cocoa Beach keeps things simpler, with a wide lifeguarded beach, beginner surf lessons, condos with pools and the thrill of the space centre, and Orlando's parks are close enough for a day trip. Away from the sand there is little in town aimed at children, and you need to watch for rip currents and summer lightning.

Cocoa Beach is the harder of the two to manage without a car. The town runs as a long, thin strip along one main road, so the sand is only a short walk from your room and a bicycle covers downtown and the pier. Local buses are infrequent, though, and the space centre, the wildlife refuge and Orlando, home to the nearest major airport, are all drives.

Gatlinburg gives you a little more freedom. The downtown stretch of the Parkway is compact enough to walk, and a trolley loops through town and out to Pigeon Forge, so from a downtown hotel you can leave the car parked for a day or two. Most cabins sit up steep, winding hill roads, however, and the trailheads still need a car. In October the Parkway traffic can stall for long stretches.

Gatlinburg has more worth buying. Past the Parkway's candy kitchens and souvenir stores, the Arts and Crafts Community sells quilts, pottery, brooms and woodwork straight from the makers' studios. For brands, there are the outlet malls in Pigeon Forge and Sevierville.

In Cocoa Beach, shopping is almost all surf. There is the huge round-the-clock surf store that has been a landmark on the main road since the 1960s, smaller shops selling boards from local shapers, and plenty of beachwear. For anything else, people go to Cocoa Village's boutiques or Orlando's malls.

Over a week, Cocoa Beach tends to cost a little more, mostly because of what you pay for beyond the room. Motels and older condos are reasonably priced outside the busy weeks and the seafood grills are fair value. A hire car, the space centre ticket and inland park admissions push the total up, and spring and launch weekends cost more.

Gatlinburg stretches a budget slightly further, especially for groups. A big cabin shared between families or a midweek motel in winter keeps beds affordable, and the national park costs little to enjoy. Parkway attractions and Dollywood add up quickly, though, and rates jump in October and over Christmas and New Year.

Gatlinburg has more to watch in the evening, even if it is family entertainment rather than serious stage work. Pigeon Forge's theatres put on dinner shows, country and gospel revues and magic most nights. Bluegrass players turn up in the tasting rooms and on the street, part of a real mountain music tradition.

Cocoa Beach offers cover bands on beach-bar decks, with a regional performing arts centre in Melbourne and a community playhouse in Cocoa Village a short drive away. For bigger productions you go to Orlando, much as visitors to the mountains go to Knoxville.

Spas are scarce in both towns, so the difference is in how each lets you slow down. In Cocoa Beach the calm comes from early walks on the sand, sunsets over the Banana River and beach yoga on a quiet weekday. In Gatlinburg it comes from a secluded hillside cabin with a hot tub on the deck and mist on the ridges, which is restful as long as you stay above the noisy Parkway rather than on it.