Daytona Beach or Tampa?

Daytona Beach is the better choice for a beach vacation, because the sand is right outside your door. Some 37km of broad, firm sand runs in front of the hotels and condos, solid enough for cars on marked sections, and you can walk out for a swim or a long stroll at any hour. The Atlantic is the weaker part. It is greenish and usually choppy, and rip currents make the lifeguarded zones the safe place to swim. Ormond Beach to the north and Ponce Inlet to the south are quieter.

Tampa has finer sand and gentler water, but you have to drive to reach them. Clearwater, Pass-a-Grille and Fort De Soto have soft white sand and a calm, warm Gulf that is easier on nervous swimmers than Daytona's surf. The city's own shore is mostly seawall, though, so each beach day starts with a drive over the bridges of up to an hour, unless you stay on the islands.

Tampa is clearly the better place to eat. The Cuban, Spanish and Sicilian heritage of the Ybor City cigar workers survives in pressed Cuban sandwiches with salami, café con leche, deviled crab croquettes and the tiled dining rooms of the Columbia Restaurant. Food halls in old industrial buildings and the neighbourhood places of Seminole Heights add depth beyond that.

Daytona's best meals come from the fish camps on the Halifax River and towards Ponce Inlet, where you eat grouper or smoked fish dip on a deck over the water. Beyond that it is mostly chain restaurants along the main roads, so food fills the gaps between beach days.

Tampa has more to see, though nothing on a grand scale. The brick factories and Latin social clubs of Ybor City tell a real immigrant story, Henry Plant's minareted railway hotel is a striking oddity, and the art museum and history centre sit along the river. Together they fill two or three days.

Daytona's sights centre on speed. You can tour the Speedway, the town's racing history began with land-speed records on the beach itself, and the Museum of Arts and Sciences has its Cuban art collection. Add a climb of the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse and most visitors have seen the town in a day or two.

Tampa gives you more choice on an ordinary night. Seventh Avenue in Ybor has dance clubs and a loud weekend crowd, SoHo has cocktail bars and patios, and downtown adds rooftops and a serious craft beer scene. In winter, Gasparilla turns the bayfront into a huge street party.

Daytona's nightlife is shaped by its event calendar. During Bike Week, Biketoberfest and race weeks, the Main Street saloons spill onto the road. Outside those weeks it settles into tiki bars, sports bars and hotel lounges, with very little dancing.

Both offer flat, watery country full of wildlife rather than scenery. The difference is in the setting. From Daytona you can explore the undeveloped dunes of Canaveral National Seashore, kayak among dolphins on Mosquito Lagoon, go birding at Merritt Island, see manatees at Blue Spring in winter and surf near Ponce Inlet.

Tampa's outdoors leans inland and towards fresh water. You can paddle through the cypress swamp of Hillsborough River State Park, slip through mangrove tunnels in the bay, see the clear spring rivers around Crystal River and Weeki Wachee, and spot alligators in Myakka's prairie.

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

Tampa's day trips offer variety but little age: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs, the Ringling estate in Sarasota and Frank Lloyd Wright's campus in Lakeland. They make pleasant days out, but nothing within reach matches St Augustine's history.

Tampa is the easier choice with children. Busch Gardens pairs roller coasters with an animal park, and ZooTampa, the Florida Aquarium and the Glazer Children's Museum fill the other days. The shallow Gulf beaches suit toddlers, although reaching any of them means a drive.

Daytona works for a simpler beach stay. There is wide sand with room to spread out, the boardwalk has arcades and ice cream, and condos with pools are easy to rent. Rip currents, spring break and Bike Week crowds are the drawbacks families have to plan around.

Both are car towns, and a rental is close to essential in either. The difference lies in the small part you can do without one. In Tampa a heritage streetcar links downtown, the Channel District and Ybor City, and the Riverwalk makes the centre walkable. In Daytona the beach itself is the car-free route, good for long walks and bike rides along the hard sand, but almost nothing else is.

Daytona's shops cover what you need, while Tampa's are worth browsing. Daytona has an outlet centre and a regional mall for brand names, swimwear and souvenir shops along the shore, and the motorcycle gear and biker clothing of Main Street.

Tampa adds what Daytona lacks: luxury labels at its upscale mall, the open-air boutiques of Hyde Park Village, and cigars rolled by hand in the small shops of Ybor City, the one thing made locally. Neither city is a reason to travel for shopping, but Tampa makes a better afternoon of it.

Daytona works out a little cheaper. Its older oceanfront motels and condo rentals keep room rates down, and casual seafood keeps meals reasonable. Prices jump during the Daytona 500 and Bike Week, so choosing your dates makes the biggest difference.

Tampa is a typical mid-priced American city, with beach hotels at their dearest in winter and spring and noticeably cheaper in summer. Cuban bakeries make lunch inexpensive. In both places a rental car adds to the bill, and in Tampa theme park tickets weigh heavily on family budgets.

The difference is between a town that hosts visiting performers and a city with companies of its own. Daytona is at its best in winter, when a long-established series brings touring orchestras and soloists. The Peabody Auditorium adds Broadway tours and comedy, and a community playhouse puts on plays and musicals. In summer the oceanfront bandshell has free evening concerts, but for anything more you drive to Orlando.

Tampa's calendar runs all year and has more depth. The Straz Center is home to an opera company and also hosts ballet, plays and touring musicals, and the Florida Orchestra plays there. The ornate 1926 Tampa Theatre and the small rock and indie venues of Ybor City fill other evenings.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so in both cases wellness means resort and day spas. Where you can rest differs. In Daytona the beach town itself is restful, with early walks on the hard sand and quiet afternoons by a condo pool, as long as you avoid the noise of race weeks and Bike Week. Sprawling Tampa is not restful, so visitors who want calm stay on the Gulf islands across the bay.