Daytona Beach or Cocoa Beach?

On the sand the two are evenly matched. Both have wide, pale Atlantic beaches with greenish water, regular waves and rip currents that make the lifeguarded stretches matter. Cocoa Beach is the more compact of the two: the town is so narrow that the beach is always a few streets away. Its sea also stays a little warmer in winter, and the pier and surf culture set the tone.

Daytona's beach is a longer, harder-packed strand of about 37km, firm enough for cars on marked stretches. Its busy centre is the boardwalk and pier, and Ormond Beach, Ponce Inlet and New Smyrna Beach are close by when you want something quieter.

Neither town is worth travelling to for the food, and on that they are close. Both eat casually and well enough on seafood. Cocoa leans on Port Canaveral rock shrimp, fish tacos and raw bars by the Banana River docks. Daytona's best meals are at the old fish camps on the Halifax River and towards Ponce Inlet, with smoked fish dip, grouper sandwiches and oysters eaten on decks over the water. Chains line the main roads in both.

Daytona has noticeably more to see. The Speedway, home of the Daytona 500, can be toured, and it tells a story of speed that goes back to land-speed records set on the beach itself. Add the Museum of Arts and Sciences and the climb up Florida's tallest lighthouse, and you have a day or two of proper sightseeing.

In Cocoa Beach the town itself has little beyond the beach and the wooden pier. Its one great sight is a rocket rising from Cape Canaveral, which you can watch from the sand. For museums, visitors leave town.

Daytona has the livelier evenings, though neither has a real club scene. Main Street's biker saloons are its signature, and during Bike Week, Biketoberfest and race weeks the bars spill out onto the street. Outside those weeks it settles into tiki bars, hotel lounges and a few spots that stay open late.

Cocoa Beach is quieter still. Nights out mean cover bands on open-air decks around the pier and the short downtown strip, and most nights are over well before the small hours. Spring break is the exception.

Cocoa Beach is slightly better placed for the outdoors. The Banana River and Indian River Lagoon start right behind town, and the Thousand Islands are an easy paddle among mangroves, manatees and dolphins, with water that glows with bioluminescent plankton on summer nights. Merritt Island refuge and Canaveral National Seashore are just north, and the surf is reliably gentle for learners.

Daytona reaches the same seashore from its other end, on Mosquito Lagoon. It also has inland options Cocoa lacks: manatees gathering at Blue Spring in winter, and canoe routes under live oaks at Tomoka.

Daytona is the better base for outings. St Augustine, with its Spanish fort and old streets, is about an hour north. Orlando and Winter Park are an hour inland, and even the Kennedy Space Center is only a little over an hour south. New Smyrna Beach and DeLand make easy half days.

Cocoa Beach has the space centre half an hour away, which is its trump card, and Cocoa Village across the causeway. St Augustine, though, means around two hours each way.

Cocoa Beach is the more relaxed choice with children. It has lifeguarded beach parks, surf schools for beginners and the space centre nearby, which most children love. It also avoids the big event weeks, so the town keeps a steady, calm pace.

Daytona has more built specifically for children, with arcades and small rides on the boardwalk, a water park, mini-golf and a planetarium for rainy afternoons. Families have to work around Bike Week, race weekends and spring break, though, when the noise and crowds are out of place for a family trip.

You will want a car in both, and neither has buses worth planning around. Cocoa Beach is the easier one to manage day to day: it is one thin strip along a single road, so a bicycle covers downtown and the pier. Orlando's airport is about an hour's drive away. Daytona spreads along wide roads on both sides of the river. Its hard beach doubles as a walking and cycling route, but traffic snarls during big events.

Daytona offers a little more range, though nobody comes to either town to shop. It has a large outlet centre and a regional mall for brand-name clothing, independent shops and galleries on Beach Street, and Main Street's motorcycle gear.

Cocoa Beach's shopping is surf culture almost entirely. A huge round-the-clock surf store has been a landmark on the main road since the 1960s, and smaller shops sell boards from local shapers. For boutiques, people cross to Cocoa Village.

Daytona comes out a little cheaper. It has more older oceanfront motels and condos, and its diners and seafood places keep meals reasonable, although rates jump sharply around the Daytona 500 and Bike Week. Cocoa Beach is moderate by American beach standards, but launch weekends and spring push prices up. A trip there also tends to add the space centre ticket to the hire car you need in both towns.

Daytona has a real, if modest, performance calendar. A long-running winter series brings visiting orchestras and soloists, the Peabody Auditorium hosts touring Broadway shows and concerts, and the oceanfront bandshell has free concerts on summer evenings.

Cocoa Beach's own offer is little more than cover bands on beach-bar decks. For a play or a touring show you drive to the Cocoa Village playhouse or the arts centre in Melbourne.

Neither town has a spa culture, and they offer much the same: a few day spas and massage studios, and the calm of early walks on the sand. Cocoa Beach is the more reliably peaceful, with quiet weekdays, beach yoga and sunsets over the river. Daytona's bigger resorts do have their own spas, but race weeks and Bike Week shatter the calm, so you need to pick your dates.