Cocoa Beach or St. Augustine?

In Cocoa Beach the sand is the town. One wide, firm strand runs the length of the barrier island, a few streets from wherever you stay, with lifeguards by the pier and the parks and wilder stretches towards Cape Canaveral. The surf is steadier, which pleases surfers but means keeping an eye on rip currents.

St. Augustine's beaches on Anastasia Island are just as wide and pale, from the dunes of the state park down to quiet Crescent Beach, and the gently shelving water suits most swimmers. The catch is that they are a drive from the historic centre and the sea turns cold sooner in winter, so the beach becomes one part of the trip rather than all of it.

Both eat mainly from the sea, but St. Augustine has more to offer. Its Minorcan heritage gives it flavours of its own, with the fiery datil pepper in hot sauces, a spicy clam chowder and pilau. A few chef-led restaurants and wine bars around the old town and San Marco make an evening out more interesting.

Cocoa Beach is simpler. It has rock shrimp from the port, fish tacos, dockside seafood houses on the Banana River and big breakfasts, with chains along the main road. That feeds a beach day well, but it gives you little reason to plan meals ahead.

This is the widest gap between the two. St. Augustine, founded by the Spanish in 1565, has the coquina Castillo de San Marcos, the balconied lanes of the Spanish quarter and Flagler's Gilded Age hotels, now Flagler College and the Lightner Museum. That is enough for two or three full days.

Cocoa Beach has its pier and one great spectacle: rockets climbing from Cape Canaveral, watched from the sand. Anyone wanting history from there ends up driving north to St. Augustine.

Neither is a town for a late night, and both quieten well before the small hours. The difference is the setting. Cocoa Beach goes out on beach-bar and sports-bar decks around the pier, with cover bands, and gets loud and young at spring break.

St. Augustine drinks in old-town taverns and courtyard cocktail bars around St. George Street and the bayfront, with Flagler College students in term time. That suits a drink after dinner rather than a beach party.

Manatees, dolphins and, on summer nights, glowing plankton in the Indian River Lagoon give Cocoa Beach the stronger outdoor side. Just north, Merritt Island refuge and Canaveral National Seashore add alligators along the drive-through trails, winter birdlife and nesting turtles. The beach breaks also make it one of the steadiest places on the east coast to learn to surf.

St. Augustine's marsh country is gentler: salt marsh and maritime hammock, paddleboarding on the Anastasia State Park lagoon, birding walks in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve and creek kayaking among herons and ospreys. As at Cocoa Beach, midsummer heat sends everyone out at dawn.

Both lists are short, and every good day out needs a car. Cocoa Beach's strength is spectacle. The Kennedy Space Center is half an hour north and Orlando's theme parks about an hour inland, so its best trips are rockets and rides.

St. Augustine looks towards towns instead: Jacksonville's museums and gardens, the Victorian port of Fernandina Beach and the Daytona speedway. Each town also counts the other as a long day out, roughly two hours apart.

Cocoa Beach is the easier family base. Lifeguarded sand a short walk away, beginner surf lessons, condos with kitchens and pools, and the space centre and Orlando within reach cover most of what children ask for. There is little else in town, though, and the currents need watching.

St. Augustine also works well with children, in a different way. The Alligator Farm, open since 1893, cannon firings at the fort, the lighthouse climb and pirate museums make history fun, but the beach means a drive and the theme parks are twice as far.

St. Augustine is easier to get around without a car for part of the day. The fort, St. George Street, Flagler College and the bayfront are minutes apart on foot, and sightseeing trolleys loop past the rest. Cocoa Beach is a thin strip along one road, where a bicycle covers the pier and downtown but almost everything else, including the nearest major airport in Orlando, means driving.

Cocoa Beach sells one thing well, and that is surf gear. A vast surf store on the main road, a landmark since the 1960s, draws visitors for boards and beachwear, and smaller shops carry boards from local shapers. Past that there are gift shops, and for boutiques people cross the causeway to Cocoa Village.

St. Augustine has more range. Past the fudge and pirate souvenirs of St. George Street, Aviles Street has galleries, antique dealers and craft shops. Datil-pepper sauces make good gifts, and an outlet mall by the interstate covers the big brands.

Both charge ordinary American beach-town prices with tipping on top, so neither is a bargain. In Cocoa Beach, motels and older condos keep rooms a little more within reach, though the hire car and space centre tickets add up over a week. In St. Augustine the pressure falls on the historic inns and rooms within walking distance of the old town, while its best pleasures, the old streets and public beaches, cost nothing.

St. Augustine has a real stage in its open-air amphitheatre in the woods on Anastasia Island, which brings touring rock, country and folk acts through much of the year. It also has acoustic sets on bar patios and a community theatre. Cocoa Beach mostly offers cover bands on beach decks, with a regional arts centre in Melbourne and a playhouse in Cocoa Village a drive away.

Neither has a spa tradition, and both rely on a few day spas and hotel treatment rooms. What relaxation there is comes from the slow pace, and it takes different forms. In Cocoa Beach it means early walks on the sand, beach yoga and sunsets over the river. In St. Augustine it means a B&B veranda, a courtyard garden and an evening stroll along the bayfront seawall.