Daytona Beach or Marco Island?

Both are true beach destinations, but the water is very different. At Daytona the Atlantic brings waves, greenish water and real rip currents along a huge, hard-packed shore, wide enough that cars drive on parts of it. You get room and energy, and you need to swim between the lifeguards.

Marco Island has a slight edge for pure beach time. Its Gulf crescent has softer, paler sand and shallow, calm water with no surf, and the sea is a little warmer in late summer. Tigertail's lagoon and sandbar are made for wading and shelling, while Daytona's quieter stretches at Ormond and Ponce Inlet are better for surfers and long walks.

Neither place is somewhere to travel for the food, and both rely on seafood eaten beside the water. Daytona's version is fried shrimp, smoked fish dip and the old fish camps on the Halifax River, with chain restaurants filling the main roads. Marco Island adds stone crab claws in the cooler months and Goodland's dockside fish shacks, though for a serious dinner people drive to Naples.

Daytona has more to see, and most of it is about speed. You can tour the Daytona International Speedway, its history goes back to land-speed records set on the sand, and the Museum of Arts and Sciences has its Cuban art and a planetarium. The Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse adds a climb with a view.

Marco Island has little to offer beyond one good small museum. It tells the story of the Calusa people and the carved wooden figures found on the island. The rest of the island is canals and condominiums, so culture means a trip to Naples.

Daytona has the livelier evenings, though they are rough-edged rather than polished. Main Street's biker saloons, beach bars and sports bars fill up during Bike Week, Biketoberfest and race weeks, and tiki bars carry on more quietly the rest of the year.

Marco Island stops after sunset drinks and dinner. A few resort lounges and marina bars stay open for a while, and Goodland's docks are the cheerful exception on winter weekend afternoons. Nothing runs late on the island.

Both landscapes are flat and full of water, but Marco Island's is wilder. It sits on the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands, with mangrove channels to paddle, dolphins and manatees close by, top inshore fishing and Rookery Bay. Everglades National Park, Big Cypress and the Fakahatchee Strand are all within an hour.

Daytona's best outdoor spots are Canaveral National Seashore and the Mosquito Lagoon for kayaking and dolphins. Merritt Island is a fine place for birding, and Blue Spring draws manatees in winter. It is good, but it is not the swamp and wilderness on Marco Island's doorstep.

Daytona is better placed for outings. St Augustine's Spanish fort and old streets are about an hour north, Kennedy Space Center is just beyond an hour south, and Orlando's theme parks are an hour inland. Each makes a strong day out in a different way.

From Marco Island the choices are milder. You can visit Naples, Everglades City and Chokoloskee, or the Edison and Ford estates at Fort Myers, and Miami is only just within a long day. The best outings here head into nature rather than towns.

Both work well for a family beach stay, in different ways. Daytona gives you a boardwalk with arcades and rides, a water park and Orlando's theme parks an hour away. Its drawbacks are rip currents and the noise of event weeks.

Marco Island's calm, shallow Gulf is gentler for small children, and the resorts run children's programmes. Attractions built for children are scarce, though, and the zoo and the children's museum are in Naples.

Both need a car, and buses are no real help in either. The difference is scale. Daytona stretches along long, wide roads on both sides of the river and jams during big events, although the firm beach makes a good route for walking or cycling. Marco Island is small enough to cycle between beach, shops and restaurants in the cooler months, but anything off the island, including the airport, means a drive.

Neither place is for shoppers. Daytona covers practical needs with an outlet centre and a regional mall, plus biker gear on Main Street and a few galleries on Beach Street. Marco Island's own plazas sell resort wear and shell décor, but it has an advantage in Naples half an hour away, where Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South offer upmarket boutiques that Daytona has no answer to.

Daytona is clearly the cheaper stay. Older oceanfront motels and condo rentals give you plenty of choice, and diners and casual seafood keep meals reasonable. Rates jump during the Daytona 500 and Bike Week, so the dates you choose matter.

Marco Island is expensive across the board, and most of all from January to April, when its best weather draws the most visitors. Summer rates fall and weekly condos with kitchens help, but it rarely feels like a bargain.

Both have modest live calendars that lean on the winter season. Daytona has a little more in town: a symphony society series of visiting orchestras, touring Broadway at the Peabody Auditorium, a community playhouse and free summer concerts at the oceanfront bandshell. Marco Island has a small theatre and live music in resort bars, and for the philharmonic and touring shows people drive to Naples.

Marco Island is the better place to slow down. The whole island keeps an unhurried pace, its larger resorts have full spas facing the Gulf, and yoga classes and day spas fill out the plazas.

Daytona can be restful too, with early walks on the hard sand and sunsets over the river. It has fewer spas, though, and its calm depends on missing race weeks and Bike Week, when engines and crowds take over.