Cocoa Beach or Orange Beach?

Both towns are built around one long, unbroken strand, but the sand and sea differ. Cocoa Beach faces the open Atlantic with firm pale sand, greenish water and a steady small surf, which suits surfers and long low-tide walks more than lazy floating.

Orange Beach has the finer beach for swimming: soft white quartz sand, water that turns clear and green on calm days, and a gently shelving shore that children can wade into. It loses out in winter, when its sea is colder than Cocoa Beach's, and both shores call for respect for rip currents.

Neither town is a place to travel for food, but Orange Beach gives a seafood lover a little more to look for. Royal Red shrimp from deep water, chargrilled oysters and the local crab-meat West Indies salad lend its waterside fish houses a stronger regional flavour.

Cocoa Beach eats in the same casual, coastal way, with rock shrimp from Port Canaveral, fish tacos and big pre-surf breakfasts, but more of its dining runs to chains along the main road and riverside grills that are pleasant rather than memorable.

Both towns are thin on sights, and any museum day means leaving town. The difference is in kind: Cocoa Beach has one experience nowhere else can match, watching rockets climb from Cape Canaveral from the sand or the causeways, while Orange Beach's own heritage stops at a small museum of Native American and fishing history.

Evenings out are much the same size in both, beach bars and open-air decks that go loud at spring break and quiet the rest of the year. Cocoa Beach keeps its going-out within walking distance, around the pier and a few downtown blocks, and most nights end early.

Orange Beach has a single famous draw, the ramshackle roadhouse straddling the Alabama-Florida line, where a sand-floored crowd stays late on summer weekends. Its other bars are scattered around the marina and Perdido Pass, so a night out involves a car or a taxi.

Cocoa Beach's nature is on the lagoon. You paddle among manatees and dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon, glide through bioluminescent water on summer nights, and drive the marsh trails of Merritt Island and Canaveral National Seashore, where alligators and winter birdlife are easy to spot. Its gentle beach breaks also make it the better of the two places to learn to surf.

Orange Beach is better explored by bike and boat. A long paved trail runs through pine woods and wetland into Gulf State Park, charter fishing boats head out through Perdido Pass, and divers have artificial reefs offshore. Bon Secour refuge is at its best during the spring and autumn migrations. Neither town has hills.

The outings are similar in number but not in character. From Cocoa Beach the standout is the Kennedy Space Center, a full day on its own, with Orlando's theme parks and Winter Park about an hour inland; for real history, St Augustine is a long drive.

Orange Beach is better placed for old towns and forts. Pensacola's colonial quarter and naval aviation museum are under an hour away, Mobile adds antebellum streets and a battleship, and Fort Morgan and the Dauphin Island ferry are close by. It lacks a single headline like the space centre.

For families, the difference is mostly about the children's ages. Cocoa Beach suits older, space-minded children who want to watch a launch, tour the space centre or try a first surf lesson, and Orlando's theme parks are close enough for a day. Beyond the beach and the pier, though, there is little in town built for children.

Orange Beach is more thoroughly set up for young ones. Its water shelves gently enough for paddling, there is a Ferris wheel and mini golf by the marina, and a water park and small zoo lie within half an hour, so rest days fill easily without a long drive.

A car is needed in both, but Cocoa Beach is the easier of the two without one for part of the stay. Its downtown, pier and beach lie within a few miles of a single road, close enough for bicycles. Orange Beach strings its condos, restaurants and marina over several miles of highway that clogs in summer, so walking rarely works beyond your own block, though the paved trails suit a bike.

Neither is a shopping destination, and each has one pull of its own. Cocoa Beach's is surf: a huge round-the-clock surf store on the main road, open since the 1960s, plus small shops selling boards by local shapers. Orange Beach is the better bet for brand names at lower prices, thanks to the big outlet mall in Foley about twenty minutes inland.

Costs come out about even, at the usual level of an American beach resort, with restaurant prices plus tipping and a hire car in both. Cocoa Beach's peaks follow spring, launch weekends and long weekends, and the space centre ticket adds to a week's bill. Orange Beach is pricier at the height of summer but much cheaper from late autumn to early spring, and large shared condos help groups keep costs down.

Orange Beach offers clearly more live music. A large outdoor amphitheatre at the marina brings country, rock and pop tours through the warmer months, and every November the Frank Brown International Songwriters' Festival fills stages along the state line.

Cocoa Beach mostly has cover bands on beach-bar decks. For a play or a concert, visitors drive to the playhouse in Cocoa Village, the performing arts centre in Melbourne or on to Orlando.

Cocoa Beach is the easier place to unwind out of season. Its mild winters make the quiet months pleasant for early walks on firm sand and sunsets over the Banana River, and its few day spas, massage studios and beach yoga classes cover the basics.

Orange Beach offers similar calm on its back bays from autumn to spring, with a few resort spas for treatments. Spring break and summer weekends are noisy there, though, so a restful stay has to avoid those weeks.