Cocoa Beach or Pigeon Forge?

This is the biggest gap between the two. Cocoa Beach sits on a barrier island with one wide strand of pale, firm sand, so a beach day is never more than a short walk away. The water is greenish rather than clear, rip currents call for lifeguarded stretches near the pier, and wilder sand lies a short drive north and south.

Pigeon Forge is in the Tennessee foothills, many hours from any coast. Swimming there means the shore of Douglas Lake, boulder pools in mountain streams, or the water park beside Dollywood.

Neither town is somewhere you travel to for the food, and the difference is mostly in what's on the plate. Cocoa Beach eats casual seafood by the water: rock shrimp from Port Canaveral, fish tacos and raw bars on docks along the Banana River.

Pigeon Forge serves mountain comfort food in large portions: pancake breakfasts, Southern buffets with fried chicken and cobbler, barbecue, and moonshine tastings along the strip. For a more serious meal, diners there drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

There is little to see in either town, but what there is differs. Cocoa Beach has the pier and one extraordinary sight: rockets climbing from Cape Canaveral, which you can watch from the sand.

Pigeon Forge has a little more to visit, nearly all of it built for entertainment, such as the half-scale Titanic and the illusion museums. Its one genuine historic building is the 1830 Old Mill, which still grinds flour. Dollywood's craft workshops and the log cabins and churches in the national park give some sense of Appalachian heritage.

Cocoa Beach is the livelier place for a drink. Beach bars and open-air decks with cover bands cluster around the pier and the short downtown strip, and spring break brings a younger, louder crowd, though most nights end early.

Pigeon Forge evenings are aimed at families, with go-karts and lit-up attractions that quieten down around ten. Adults have a few brewpubs and moonshine rooms, or the drive to Gatlinburg's bars.

Pigeon Forge is the stronger choice for scenery and the outdoors, because the Great Smoky Mountains rise above 2,000m half an hour away. Their trails range from short waterfall walks to the Appalachian Trail along the crest, and black bears and deer are easy to spot in Cades Cove. Spring wildflowers and October colour bring the landscape to its best.

Cocoa Beach's nature is flat but full of life. You can kayak among manatees and through glowing plankton on the Indian River Lagoon, see alligators and winter birds at Merritt Island and nesting turtles on the beach, and learn to surf on gentle breaks. There's nothing there to climb, though.

Cocoa Beach has the stronger best day out. The Kennedy Space Center, half an hour north, has the Saturn V and the shuttle Atlantis and easily fills a day. Orlando's theme parks and Winter Park are about an hour away, but past those the choices drop to Cocoa Village and a long run to St Augustine.

Pigeon Forge has a broader spread of modest trips: Gatlinburg's craft studios, Knoxville's Market Square, and Cherokee across Newfound Gap. Its finest outing, the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, takes nearly two hours each way.

Pigeon Forge is slightly better for children because the town exists for them. Dollywood and its water park are right there, the go-karts and mountain coasters line the Parkway, and big cabins sleep several families together. The downsides are slow traffic between stops at peak times and summer heat on the strip.

In Cocoa Beach the beach does most of the work. It has lifeguarded parks, surf lessons and condos with pools, and the space centre thrills most children. Beyond the sand and the pier, little in town is built for children, and Orlando's parks are an hour's drive.

Both are long strips along one main road, and both really need a car. Cocoa Beach is the slightly easier of the two on foot, since the sand is a short walk from most rooms and a bicycle covers downtown. Pigeon Forge has a slow Parkway trolley that runs to Gatlinburg, but not to the hillside cabins or the park trailheads, and the traffic thickens in summer, October and the Christmas weeks.

Pigeon Forge offers more to shop for. Large outlet centres line the road towards Sevierville, and the Old Mill area and the craft studios above Gatlinburg sell pottery, quilts, brooms and woodwork made in the mountains.

Cocoa Beach shopping is almost all surf culture. A huge surf store on the main road, open round the clock, has been a landmark since the 1960s, alongside smaller shops selling locally shaped boards. Anything more means Cocoa Village's boutiques or Orlando.

Both are mid-priced American resorts, and in both the attractions cost more than the beds. Pigeon Forge comes out a little kinder, because a large shared cabin works out cheaply per person, breakfast houses and buffets cost little, and walking in the national park is nearly free. In Cocoa Beach, motels and older condos keep rooms reasonable, but prices climb on launch weekends and in spring. The space centre and Orlando park tickets add up in the same way that Dollywood and dinner shows do.

Pigeon Forge has far more live entertainment. Dozens of Parkway theatres put on country and gospel revues, comedy, magic and dinner shows every night, and Dollywood has bluegrass on its stages through the day. It is broad family fare, though, and for anything more serious you go to Knoxville.

In Cocoa Beach, live entertainment mostly means cover bands on bar decks. A regional arts centre in Melbourne and a playhouse in Cocoa Village are a short drive away.

Neither has a spa tradition, and both offer only a few day spas, so the difference is in how you unwind. In Cocoa Beach that means early walks on the sand, sunsets over the river and quiet weekdays. In Pigeon Forge it happens up on the ridges, on a cabin porch or in a private hot tub, as long as you stay well away from the neon and traffic of the Parkway.