Daytona Beach or Fort Myers?

Both are strong beach destinations, but they are different kinds of sea. Daytona Beach faces the open Atlantic, with 37km of wide, hard-packed sand right in town, firm enough to drive on in places. The water is greenish with regular waves and real rip currents, which suits surfers at New Smyrna Beach and Ponce Inlet more than nervous swimmers.

Fort Myers has the calm, shallow Gulf, with fine pale sand on Estero Island, quieter strands at Lovers Key and Bonita Beach, and the famous shelling of Sanibel and Captiva. The catch is that the beaches are half an hour or more from the city, and seaweed or algae can sometimes spoil the water.

Neither is a place to travel to for food, and both come down to casual seafood. Daytona's best meals are at the old fish camps along the Halifax River and towards Ponce Inlet, with smoked fish dip, oysters and Southern breakfasts. Fort Myers adds stone crab claws in season, sunset decks on the Gulf, and a small cluster of independent restaurants and craft breweries in the River District, with better cooking out towards Sanibel and Naples.

Each has one big sight and a day's worth of the rest. In Daytona that sight is the Speedway and its history of speed, backed up by the Cuban art at the Museum of Arts and Sciences and the climb up the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse. Fort Myers has the Edison and Ford Winter Estates, with their riverside homes, laboratory and gardens, plus the royal palms of McGregor Boulevard and the brick streets of the River District.

Daytona Beach is the livelier place to go out, though its nightlife is rowdy rather than polished. The biker saloons on Main Street, sports bars and tiki bars fill up during Bike Week, Biketoberfest and race weeks, when crowds spill onto the street, and the rest of the year is calmer.

Fort Myers is quieter and older for most of the winter. It has a few rooftop and cocktail bars in the River District, a monthly art walk, and sunset crowds near the pier on Fort Myers Beach, but most places close early.

Both are flat, watery and full of wildlife, but Fort Myers has the edge. The Ding Darling refuge on Sanibel is one of the best places in the country for roseate spoonbills and herons, Corkscrew Swamp has a boardwalk through ancient bald cypress, and the mangrove tunnels of the Great Calusa Blueway make for excellent paddling.

Daytona's outdoors centres on Canaveral National Seashore, where you can kayak the Mosquito Lagoon among dolphins, with birding at Merritt Island and winter manatees at Blue Spring State Park. It also has proper surf, which the Gulf lacks.

Daytona Beach has the stronger day trips. St Augustine, with its Spanish fort and old streets, is about an hour north, Kennedy Space Center is a little further south, and Orlando's theme parks and the lakeside calm of Winter Park are an hour inland.

From Fort Myers, the outings are mostly gentler: Naples and its pier, the island villages of Sanibel, Captiva and Boca Grande, and the utopian settlement at Koreshan State Park. The big cultural trip, the Ringling museum in Sarasota, is about an hour and a half away.

Both work for a family beach stay, in different ways. Daytona has the boardwalk arcades, small rides and a water park, and Orlando's theme parks are within an hour. The downsides are rip currents and the noisy event weeks.

Fort Myers has the calmer sea, shallow water ideal for small children, shell hunting on Sanibel and gentle kayaking through the mangroves. However, Orlando is about three hours away, and the nearest substitutes are the Shell Factory and spring-training baseball.

You need a car in either place, and the buses in both are too sparse to rely on. Daytona's advantage is that the hard sand itself is a long walking and cycling route from your hotel, though traffic is heavy during big events. In Fort Myers, even reaching the beach means driving, and in winter the bridges to Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel back up badly.

Fort Myers is the better place for shopping, though it is no shopping destination. The open-air centres and outlet mall towards Estero cover the brands, and Periwinkle Way on Sanibel and the Captiva villages have galleries and shell shops that are pleasant to browse.

Daytona's shopping is more functional: an outlet centre, a regional mall, beach shops, and the motorcycle gear and biker clothing of Main Street, with only a few independents on Beach Street.

Daytona Beach is the cheaper stay. Its supply of older oceanfront motels and condo rentals keeps rooms affordable, as long as you avoid the Daytona 500, Bike Week and other big events.

Fort Myers costs more in the winter high season, when beachfront rooms on Fort Myers Beach and especially Sanibel are expensive and book up early. Staying in town or coming in summer brings costs down, but bridge and parking fees add to the driving you will already be doing.

Fort Myers has the fuller programme. The Barbara B. Mann hall brings touring Broadway and big shows, a professional repertory company plays in a restored 1908 theatre downtown, and a regional symphony performs through the winter, although most of this stops in summer.

Daytona's stage is smaller: a winter series of visiting orchestras run by the symphony society, touring shows at the Peabody Auditorium and a community playhouse. It does have free summer concerts at the oceanfront bandshell, when Fort Myers goes quiet.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and in both, spas mean the resort hotels. The difference is in the pace. Sanibel and Captiva, with their low buildings, bike paths and early nights, are calmer for a restful stay. Daytona offers quiet early walks on the hard sand and evenings by the river, but that calm disappears during race weeks and Bike Week.