Cocoa Beach or Tampa?

In Cocoa Beach the beach is the town. One long strand of firm, pale sand runs the length of the barrier island, a few streets from wherever you stay, and surfing, the pier and walks at low tide set the pace of the day. The Atlantic is greenish and brings small waves and rip currents, so families keep to the lifeguarded stretches.

Tampa's own shore on the bay is mostly seawall. The Gulf beaches at Clearwater, St Pete Beach and Fort De Soto have whiter, softer sand and calmer water, but each visit means a drive of up to an hour. Going to the beach becomes an outing rather than part of every day.

Tampa has a cooking tradition with a story behind it. The Cuban, Spanish and Sicilian cigar workers of Ybor City left behind the salami-layered Cuban sandwich, deviled crab croquettes and a tiled Spanish dining room that has run for over a century, and there are grouper and stone crab along the bay.

Cocoa Beach eats well after a day outdoors, with Port Canaveral rock shrimp, fish tacos and dockside grills on the Banana River. Still, it is plain coastal food, with chains along the main road and nothing worth planning a trip around.

Cocoa Beach itself has little to visit beyond the pier. Its one memorable cultural moment is a rocket climbing from Cape Canaveral, seen from the sand.

Tampa fills two or three days. There are the brick cigar factories and Latin social clubs of Ybor City, Henry Plant's minareted railway hotel, which now holds the Henry B. Plant Museum, and the art and history museums on the river. None of it is of international rank, but there is far more to see.

Evenings in Cocoa Beach mean a beach bar or a deck with a cover band near the pier. It gets louder at spring break but is mostly quiet well before the small hours.

Tampa gives you a choice. Seventh Avenue in Ybor City has dance clubs open late, SoHo has cocktail patios, and downtown has rooftops and craft brewery taprooms. Each winter the Gasparilla pirate invasion turns the bayfront into a huge street party.

Cocoa Beach has the richer outdoors right on its doorstep. The Indian River Lagoon behind the town is a place to kayak among manatees and dolphins, and on summer nights the water glows with plankton. Merritt Island and Canaveral National Seashore add winter birds, alligators and nesting turtles, and the gentle beach breaks make this a good place to learn to surf.

Tampa's nature is also about water and wildlife, but more of it needs a drive. You can paddle the cypress swamp on the Hillsborough River, see manatees at Apollo Beach in winter, or visit the clear springs of Crystal River and Weeki Wachee an hour or more north. Neither place has hills for hiking.

Both have a handful of good drives rather than a long list, but the trips are different in kind. Cocoa Beach has one outing nothing else matches: the Kennedy Space Center, about half an hour north, with the Saturn V and the shuttle Atlantis. The Orlando parks are an hour inland, and St Augustine's Spanish fort makes a long day.

Tampa's outings are more varied, though none stands out above the rest. They include the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs, the Ringling estate in Sarasota and Frank Lloyd Wright's campus in Lakeland.

Tampa has more for children to do around the city. There are Busch Gardens' coasters and animal park, ZooTampa, the Florida Aquarium and splash pads on the Riverwalk, and the gentle Gulf beaches across the bay suit small children.

Cocoa Beach is the simpler choice, with a wide lifeguarded beach, surf lessons, condos with pools and the space centre. Beyond the sand and the pier, though, little is built for children, and the Atlantic surf needs closer watching.

You need a car in both, but for different reasons. In Cocoa Beach everything in town is a short walk or bike ride along one thin strip, and the car is for the space centre, the wildlife refuge and the hour to the airport in Orlando. Tampa's core of downtown, the Channel District and Ybor City is linked by a heritage streetcar and the Riverwalk, but the beaches and Busch Gardens mean driving through traffic on the bridges and interstates.

In Cocoa Beach, shopping begins and ends with surf culture. The big draw is the huge round-the-clock surf store that has stood on the main road since the 1960s, along with boards from local shapers and racks of beachwear. For anything else, people cross to Cocoa Village or drive to Orlando.\n\nThe range widens in Tampa, though much of it is what any American city offers: an upscale mall with the luxury brands and the open-air boutiques of Hyde Park Village. The one local speciality is cigars, still rolled by hand in small Ybor City shops.

Overall costs are much the same, with full American restaurant bills, tipping and a hire car in both. In Cocoa Beach, older motels and condos help, but spring and launch weekends push rates up and the space centre ticket adds to the bill. Tampa is cheaper in summer and its Cuban bakeries keep lunch modest, but theme parks and beach hotels in high season add up quickly.

Live performance in Cocoa Beach mostly means a cover band on a beach-bar deck. For a play or a touring show you drive to the regional arts centre in Melbourne or the community playhouse in Cocoa Village.\n\nAn evening of theatre or music is far easier to find in Tampa. The Straz Center on the river hosts touring Broadway musicals, opera, ballet and the Florida Orchestra. The ornate 1926 Tampa Theatre holds concerts under its starry ceiling, and Ybor City has small rock and indie venues.

Neither has a spa tradition, so how relaxing each feels comes down to pace. Cocoa Beach is restful in itself, with early walks on the sand, sunsets over the river and quiet weekdays, though its spas are small day studios. Tampa has bigger resort spas, but the city is sprawling and humid, and people looking for calm stay on the Gulf islands instead.