Cocoa Beach or Gulf Shores?

Both are single long beaches with the sand never far away, so the difference is in how they feel. Cocoa Beach faces the open Atlantic. Its firm, pale sand is good for long walks at low tide, and the greenish water with steady small surf makes it a surfing town as much as a swimming one.

Gulf Shores has softer, whiter quartz sand that squeaks underfoot, and on calm days the Gulf is clearer and a little warmer in high summer. In winter it is the other way round, as the Atlantic off Cocoa stays noticeably milder than the Gulf. Rip currents are a real danger at both, so stick to lifeguarded or flagged stretches with children.

Neither is worth travelling to for the food, but Gulf Shores gives you a little more to eat well on. Its seafood has a regional character: deep-water Royal Red shrimp, chargrilled oysters and gumbo with a Louisiana influence. There are also a few more polished dining rooms on the Orange Beach waterfront, and seafood markets for anyone cooking in a condo.

Cocoa Beach covers similar ground more plainly. Expect Port Canaveral rock shrimp, fish tacos and big surfers' breakfasts at beach grills and dockside places on the Banana River, with chain restaurants along the main road.

In Cocoa Beach, the sight is a rocket rising off Cape Canaveral, which you can watch from the sand or from the causeways a few miles north of town. In Gulf Shores, it is Fort Morgan, a brick star fort at the tip of the peninsula that fought in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864, and it fills an unhurried morning.

Beyond those two, there is little to see in either town. For museums and old streets you will have to drive out, inland to Orlando from Cocoa Beach, or to Mobile and Pensacola from Gulf Shores.

In both towns a night out means open-air decks, beach bars and cover bands, and spring break brings a younger crowd to each. Gulf Shores lasts longer into the night. The famous ramshackle roadhouse on the state line at Perdido Key stays loud late, and a few bars on the main beach strip keep going in summer.

In Cocoa Beach the evening centres on the pier and a few downtown blocks and usually winds down early. For anything later, you have to drive to Orlando.

Cocoa Beach is the stronger choice outdoors, mainly because of the lagoon behind it. You can kayak the Indian River Lagoon among manatees and dolphins, paddle through bioluminescent water on summer nights, and drive Merritt Island's refuge past alligators and wintering birds. Its gentle beach breaks also make it a natural place to learn to surf.

Gulf Shores is flat and watery in a quieter way. Its best outdoor options are cycling the paved trails through Gulf State Park, watching the spring and autumn bird migration at the western end, deep-sea fishing from Orange Beach, and exploring the vast Mobile-Tensaw Delta inland by boat.

The two are evenly matched for day trips, but in different ways. Cocoa Beach has a short list led by one famous name, the Kennedy Space Center, which fills a whole day with the Saturn V and the shuttle Atlantis. Orlando's theme parks are about an hour inland, and St Augustine's Spanish fort makes a long day out.

Gulf Shores has no single big attraction but more variety within about an hour. You can see Mobile's ironwork balconies and the battleship USS Alabama, visit bayside Fairhope and Pensacola's naval aviation museum, or take the car ferry across to Dauphin Island.

Both work well for families, with wide sandy beaches, condos with kitchens and pools, and rip currents to keep an eye on. The difference is where the excitement comes from. In Cocoa Beach it is surf lessons, rocket launches and the space centre, with Orlando's theme parks within reach, but the town itself has little built for children.

Gulf Shores has more for families on the spot. A water park, a small hands-on zoo, the Ferris wheel at Orange Beach and a theme park in Foley are all there for hot or rainy afternoons.

You need a car in both, but Cocoa Beach is easier from day to day. It is a thin strip along one main road, so the sand is a short walk from most rooms and a bicycle gets you around downtown and the pier. The car is for the space centre, the wildlife refuge and the hour's drive to Orlando's airport.

Gulf Shores stretches for miles along a beach road, with restaurants and attractions on highways inland, so even going out for dinner often means driving. Traffic over the bridges is heavy on summer weekends, and bikes are really only practical inside Gulf State Park.

Cocoa Beach shops for surfers, and Gulf Shores for bargain hunters. In Cocoa Beach, the giant round-the-clock surf shop on the main road has been a landmark since the 1960s, smaller shops sell boards from local shapers, and Cocoa Village across the causeway has a few boutiques.

Gulf Shores has no real surf culture. Its draw is the large outlet mall in Foley, the usual place to spend a rainy day. Otherwise you will find big beachwear and souvenir stores along the beach road and some boutiques on the Orange Beach waterfront.

Overall costs are about the same, middling for an American beach town, and in both a hire car is a cost you can't avoid. Gulf Shores changes a lot with the season: it is expensive in June and July but much cheaper in winter, when long stays are common, and free beaches and condo kitchens keep daily spending down.

Cocoa Beach is steadier through the year, with motels and older condos within reach. Rates rise in spring and on launch weekends, though, and the space centre ticket adds to the bill.

Gulf Shores has noticeably more live music. Bands and singer-songwriters play every day on beach-bar stages, and the state-line roadhouse has hosted a songwriters' festival every November for decades. An outdoor amphitheatre on the Orange Beach waterfront also brings touring country and rock acts in the warmer months.

In Cocoa Beach live music mostly means cover bands on bar decks, with a regional arts centre in Melbourne and a community playhouse in Cocoa Village for the odd night out. For more formal concerts, Gulf Shores visitors go to Mobile and Cocoa Beach visitors to Orlando.

Neither has a spa tradition, only a few day spas and massage rooms, so rest comes from the slow pace. Cocoa Beach adds beach yoga, early walks on firm sand and sunsets over the Banana River. Gulf Shores is the sleepier of the two outside summer weekends, a place for slow days on a condo balcony.