Cocoa Beach or Virginia Beach?

These two are evenly matched. Both have long, wide strands of pale sand on the open Atlantic, with lifeguards and a fishing pier where the surfers gather, so the differences are in setting and season. Cocoa Beach sits on a low barrier island, so the sand is only a few streets from every room. The water is greenish, with steady surf and rip currents, wilder stretches run towards Cape Canaveral, and you can swim for many more months of the year.

Virginia Beach has a three-mile boardwalk lined with hotel towers. It also has something Cocoa Beach lacks: calm, gentle water on the Chesapeake Bay side around First Landing, which is ideal for toddlers, plus the dunes and rental houses of Sandbridge. Its swimming season, though, is essentially summer only.

Neither is a place to travel for the food, but Virginia Beach has the stronger local cooking. Lynnhaven oysters and Chesapeake blue crab, served as crab cakes or in she-crab soup, are worth seeking out at the dockside places around the inlet and the bay, and Norfolk is close if you want more variety.

Cocoa Beach eats simply: Port Canaveral rock shrimp, fish tacos and fried fish at beach grills and docks on the Banana River, with chains along the main road. That is fine for a sandy meal after surfing, but there is little to plan a day around.

Both are resorts first, but Virginia Beach has more to see. It has the Cape Henry memorial, where English colonists first came ashore in 1607, the Old Cape Henry Lighthouse, a rare early colonial brick house and a small contemporary art museum.

Cocoa Beach has almost nothing to see in town apart from the pier. Its one great spectacle is a rocket rising from Cape Canaveral, watched from the sand. It is unforgettable, but it is no substitute for museums or historic streets.

A night out in Cocoa Beach means a cover band on an open-air deck near the pier or along the few blocks of downtown. Spring break and long weekends bring a louder, younger crowd, but most of the year things go quiet well before the small hours, and the nearest clubs are an hour's drive away in Orlando.

Virginia Beach gives you more choice and later summer nights. Bars and rooftop decks along Atlantic Avenue and the boardwalk fill up with vacationers and sailors from the navy bases. Town Center has cocktail bars and lounges for a quieter drink, and the bars of downtown Norfolk and Ghent are half an hour away. Out of season, though, the strip here empties early too.

Cocoa Beach has the richer wildlife. The highlight is kayaking the Indian River Lagoon among manatees and dolphins, or through water lit by glowing plankton on summer nights. Merritt Island and Canaveral National Seashore add alligators, winter birds and nesting turtles, and the gentle beach breaks make Cocoa Beach the easier place to learn to surf.

Virginia Beach is better for walking. First Landing State Park has trails through maritime forest and cypress swamp, and Back Bay and False Cape offer long, empty shoreline to explore by bike. Kayaking out to the dolphins offshore is a good outing, but it does not match the lagoon life further south.

Virginia Beach has the longer list. Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown are about an hour away and can fill a day or two, Norfolk's battleship and art museum are closer still, and Kitty Hawk, where the Wright brothers first flew, is within reach.

Cocoa Beach has one outstanding outing, the Kennedy Space Center with its Saturn V and the shuttle Atlantis, plus Orlando's theme parks and Winter Park. After that the choice thins to Cocoa Village, the museums in Titusville and a long drive to St Augustine.

Both work well with children, and the difference is in what fills the days. Virginia Beach has more for families in town: the Virginia Aquarium, a water park, mini-golf and the boardwalk, with calm bay beaches for toddlers and a large amusement park near Williamsburg.

Cocoa Beach has less in town but bigger thrills nearby: rocket launches, the space centre and Orlando's theme parks, plus surf lessons and condos with kitchens and pools. Keep an eye on the currents in the surf and on summer lightning.

Neither works without a car once you leave the beach. Cocoa Beach is a thin strip along one road, where a bicycle covers downtown and the pier, but the space centre, the wildlife refuge and the airport in Orlando, about an hour away, all mean driving.

Virginia Beach adds a three-mile boardwalk and a summer trolley along Atlantic Avenue. Beyond that it spreads into suburbs, and summer traffic into the resort area can be heavy.

Virginia Beach offers more, though in an ordinary suburban way: a large regional mall, the outdoor streets of chain stores at Town Center, and surf shops along the Oceanfront. Cocoa Beach is almost entirely surf culture, centred on a huge surf store on the main road that is open round the clock and has been a landmark since the 1960s, plus boards from local shapers. For anything wider you go to Cocoa Village or Orlando.

The costs come out much the same. Both carry full American prices plus tipping, and both need a hire car, so what differs is the shape of the year.

Virginia Beach is expensive on summer weekends and gets much cheaper out of season, though by then the sea is too cold for swimming. In Cocoa Beach, the motels and older condos stay affordable for most of the year and only climb in spring and on launch weekends. Free state parks and the boardwalk save money in Virginia Beach, while in Cocoa Beach the space centre ticket and Orlando admissions add up.

Virginia Beach is far better served. A large outdoor amphitheatre brings touring rock and country acts in summer, and stages along the boardwalk host free concerts. Norfolk, half an hour away, has the Virginia Opera, the Virginia Symphony and the Virginia Arts Festival every spring.

Cocoa Beach has cover bands on beach-bar decks. There is a regional arts centre in Melbourne and a community playhouse in Cocoa Village a short drive away, but for proper concerts people go to Orlando.

Neither has a spa tradition, and in both the rest comes from the pace rather than the facilities. Virginia Beach has spas in its larger oceanfront hotels, but it gets crowded and loud in summer, so its calm comes in spring and autumn. Cocoa Beach has only small day spas and beach yoga, but its sunsets over the river and quiet weekdays carry on through the mild winter.