Fort Lauderdale or Pigeon Forge?

There is no contest here. A stay in Fort Lauderdale revolves around a long pale-sand beach on the barrier island, with lifeguard towers, the palm-lined promenade behind and Atlantic water warm enough to swim in all year. At Lauderdale-by-the-Sea you can snorkel over a reef straight from the shore.

Pigeon Forge lies deep in the Tennessee foothills. Swimming there means the shores of Douglas Lake, rock pools in the national park's streams, or the water park beside Dollywood.

Neither is a food destination, but you eat better in Fort Lauderdale. It has dockside fish shacks on the Intracoastal, stone crab in winter, terraces along Las Olas, and Jamaican, Haitian and Cuban cooking in the inland suburbs.

Pigeon Forge means pancake houses, Southern buffets and barbecue along the Parkway, generous and plain, with moonshine tastings and Old Mill fudge as the local touches. For a memorable dinner you drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

Neither is a trip for sightseeing, but Fort Lauderdale gives a curious visitor a better day. Its handful of places are small and real, and they tell the story of a young city on the water: the Bonnet House with its art and gardens behind the beach, the Stranahan House from the New River's pioneer years, and a modest modern art museum on Las Olas, all easily covered between lunch and sunset.

Pigeon Forge's sights are there to amuse rather than to explain, like the half-scale Titanic and the illusion museums along the Parkway. The real exceptions are the Old Mill of 1830, still turning on the Little Pigeon River, and the craft workshops at Dollywood. To get a proper sense of the mountains' past, head to the log cabins and churches inside the national park.

Fort Lauderdale is clearly the better night out. The beach bars on A1A fill from late afternoon, Himmarshee Street runs late for a younger crowd, and Wilton Manors is one of the country's best-known gay neighbourhoods, with drag shows along Wilton Drive.

Pigeon Forge winds down at about ten, once the go-kart tracks and lit-up attraction complexes close. Adults get a few brewpubs and moonshine rooms, and most drive to Gatlinburg for a drink.

Pigeon Forge has the stronger outdoors because the Great Smoky Mountains National Park begins about half an hour away. You can spend days on ridges rising above 2,000m, the steep climb to Mount LeConte, the drive over Newfound Gap and the loop road through Cades Cove, where black bears and wild turkey are easy to spot.

Fort Lauderdale is flat, and its nature is on the water. You can kayak the canals, dive reefs and sunken wrecks close to shore, fish for sailfish offshore and take an airboat through the Everglades sawgrass less than an hour west.

Fort Lauderdale has the stronger day trips, mainly because Miami is under an hour away by car or fast train, with the Art Deco district, Wynwood's murals and Little Havana. Palm Beach's Flagler Museum to the north and Key Largo to the south widen the choice.

From Pigeon Forge you can reach Gatlinburg's craft studios next door, Knoxville's Market Square, the Cherokee museum over the mountains, and Asheville with the Biltmore Estate, which is the longest trip and the best. They are worth the drive, but none of them fills a day with as much variety as Miami does.

Pigeon Forge is the more complete family destination. Dollywood's coasters and seasonal festivals, its summer water park, and the mountain coasters, mini-golf and observation wheel on the Parkway can fill several days, and the cabins and indoor water-park hotels are built for large groups.

Fort Lauderdale offers gentler things: calm, warm water off a lifeguarded beach, the hands-on Museum of Discovery and Science, and alligators on an airboat ride. In both places you need a car for most outings, and summer heat makes days with children harder.

In Fort Lauderdale you can stay in the triangle of beach, Las Olas and downtown and leave the car behind. It is pleasant to walk, and canal water taxis and free trolleys link the three. Trains to Miami and the Palm Beaches cover the main day trips, though the Everglades and the outlet malls still mean a hire car or ride-hailing.

Pigeon Forge has no walkable area like that. It is one long multi-lane strip where you can walk only inside the attraction complexes. The Parkway trolley is slow and does not reach the hillside cabins, and the national park trailheads can only be reached by car.

Fort Lauderdale offers more: an unhurried afternoon of boutiques and resort fashion on Las Olas, and one of the country's largest outlet malls out in Sunrise. Pigeon Forge has outlet centres too, towards Sevierville, but its more distinctive buys are handmade: quilts, pottery and cornmeal around the Old Mill, and brooms, baskets and leather from the studios above Gatlinburg. Neither has luxury shopping.

Pigeon Forge is the cheaper stay. Thousands of motel rooms and cabins keep lodging reasonable outside the peak weeks, a big cabin splits well between families, and buffets and breakfast houses cost little. Theme park days and dinner shows are where the spending adds up.

Fort Lauderdale is expensive for most of the year, above all in the winter high season, when beachfront rates, tips and beach-bar cocktails stretch a budget. A summer stay or an apartment a few blocks back from the sand eases the cost, and the beach itself is free.

The two are level here but very different in kind. In Fort Lauderdale a night out at a show usually means the Broward Center on the New River, with touring Broadway musicals, ballet and concerts, plus touring bands downtown and cover bands at the beach.

Pigeon Forge makes its own entertainment, with dozens of Parkway theatres staging country and gospel revues, magic acts and dinner spectacles, and bluegrass on Dollywood's stages. Neither has serious classical music, which means a trip to Miami or Knoxville.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so relaxing here depends on the setting. Fort Lauderdale comes out ahead, with resort spas, sunrise yoga on the sand and long, easy mornings on the promenade in mild, dry winter weather.

In Pigeon Forge the calm is up in the hills, in wooded cabins with porches, fireplaces and private hot tubs looking over the ridges. The Parkway below is all neon and traffic, so where you stay matters more than any spa.