Daytona Beach or Pigeon Forge?

This is the widest gap between the two. Daytona's shore is a broad strip of firm sand along the barrier island, with quieter stretches towards Ormond Beach and Ponce Inlet and steady surf at New Smyrna Beach. The water is greenish rather than clear, and rip currents mean staying near the lifeguards.

Pigeon Forge lies in the Tennessee foothills, and the nearest thing to a beach is the shore of Douglas Lake or a boulder pool in a Smokies stream. Most children there swim at the Dollywood water park or in a hotel pool.

Neither town is worth the journey for food, but Daytona has the edge thanks to its seafood: grouper sandwiches, smoked fish dip and oysters, eaten on a deck at the fish camps along the Halifax River and towards Ponce Inlet.

Pigeon Forge runs on pancake houses, Southern buffets and barbecue along the Parkway, with moonshine tastings and fudge as its local touches. For serious Appalachian cooking you have to drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

Daytona has more to see, though a day or two covers it. The Speedway tour, the history of land-speed records set on the sand, the Cuban art at the Museum of Arts and Sciences and a climb up Florida's tallest lighthouse give it some real substance.

Pigeon Forge's sights are mostly built for amusement, such as the Titanic replica and the illusion museums. The Old Mill of 1830 is its one genuinely historic building, and anyone interested in history ends up at the log cabins and churches in the national park.

By comparison, Daytona offers a proper night out: beach bars, tiki bars at sunset and the biker saloons of Main Street, which spill onto the street during Bike Week and Biketoberfest. Clubs and cocktail bars are still few.

In Pigeon Forge the evenings belong to families, with go-karts and lit-up attractions that wind down around ten. Adults who want a drink find a few brewpubs and moonshine tasting rooms, or drive up to Gatlinburg.

Here Pigeon Forge pulls clearly ahead. Half an hour away, the Great Smoky Mountains rise to more than 2,000m. There are waterfall walks such as Laurel Falls, the climb to Mount LeConte, bears in Cades Cove and October colour across the hardwood ridges.

Daytona's outdoors are flat and watery instead: kayaking among dolphins on the Mosquito Lagoon, birding at Merritt Island, manatees at Blue Spring in winter and surf near Ponce Inlet. It suits paddlers and birdwatchers, but there is nothing to climb.

Daytona is better placed, with three strong outings each about an hour away: the Spanish fort and old streets of St Augustine, the rockets at Kennedy Space Center and the theme parks of Orlando.

From Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg's craft studios are next door and Knoxville's Market Square is within forty minutes. Asheville and the Biltmore Estate make one excellent long day. After Cherokee, though, the list thins quickly.

Pigeon Forge is the stronger choice for children, because the whole town is organised around them. A week fills easily with Dollywood's coasters, crafts and seasonal festivals, the water park, mountain coasters, zip lines and easy bear-spotting walks. Big cabins can sleep several families at once.

Daytona works best as a straightforward beach stay, with boardwalk arcades, mini-golf, condo pools and Orlando's parks within an hour. Rip currents, summer heat and the noise of Bike Week and spring break are the things to plan around.

Both are car towns in equal measure, strung along long roads where walking gets you little further than a single complex. The small help each offers is different: in Daytona you can walk or cycle along the hard sand itself, while Pigeon Forge has a slow trolley up the Parkway to Gatlinburg that saves you parking on peak days but does not reach the cabins or the trailheads.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Pigeon Forge has slightly more worth taking home. Beyond the Parkway outlets, the Old Mill area sells pottery, quilts and stone-ground cornmeal, and the crafts community above Gatlinburg makes baskets, brooms and woodwork.

Daytona covers the practical side with an outlet centre, a mall and beach shops. It also has motorcycle gear on Main Street and a few galleries on Beach Street.

Overall costs are much the same. Both are cheaper than most American resorts, both need a car, and in both, prices jump in the big weeks: the Daytona 500 and Bike Week in Daytona, and summer, October and Christmas in Pigeon Forge.

The difference is where the money goes. In Daytona the beach is free all day. In Pigeon Forge, theme park tickets and dinner shows add up, although shared cabins and cheap walks in the national park balance that out.

Pigeon Forge offers far more live entertainment, though in a narrow style. Dozens of Parkway theatres stage country and gospel revues, comedy, magic and dinner shows every evening, and Dollywood has bluegrass and gospel on its stages through the day.

Daytona's calendar is thinner but more varied. It has a winter series of visiting orchestras, touring Broadway at the Peabody Auditorium and free summer concerts at the oceanfront bandshell. Neither has opera or a theatre district of its own.

A rest by the ocean or a rest in the woods: the two settings could hardly be more different. Daytona's calm is the open shore, with an early walk on the hard sand, a long afternoon by a condo pool and sunset over the river. In Pigeon Forge it is a wooded hillside cabin with a porch, a fireplace and a private hot tub looking across the ridges.

Treatments are limited in both towns, mostly to a few day spas and the spas of the larger resorts. Each place also has its noisy side. In Daytona, race weeks and Bike Week bring engines and crowds, so the dates matter. In Pigeon Forge, the neon and traffic of the Parkway are there all year, so it is best to book high up and away from the strip.