Fort Myers or Tampa?

Both cities depend on barrier islands for their beaches, but in Fort Myers the beach is closer to being the whole trip. Fort Myers Beach on Estero Island is long and wide with very shallow water. Lovers Key and Bonita Beach are calmer, and Sanibel and Captiva add the shelling that people come back for year after year. Algae blooms can occasionally spoil a stretch of water.

Tampa itself faces a bay lined with seawall, so its sand means a drive to Clearwater, St Pete Beach or the quieter Fort De Soto and Caladesi Island. That sand is white and lovely, but most visitors treat it as a day out rather than staying beside it.

The two share Gulf seafood, with grouper sandwiches and stone crab in both. In Fort Myers, though, eating out mostly means a waterfront deck with peel-and-eat shrimp, a small group of independent places in the River District and a lot of chain restaurants along the highways.

Tampa has a cuisine you can actually trace. The Cuban, Spanish and Sicilian roots of Ybor City show in its pressed Cuban sandwich with salami, café con leche and croquettes, and the Columbia Restaurant has served Spanish dishes for over a century. Seminole Heights and the food halls add a modern layer that Fort Myers lacks.

Fort Myers comes down to one good sight: the riverside Edison and Ford Winter Estates, with their laboratory and gardens, plus a stroll down palm-lined McGregor Boulevard. Most visitors are finished in a day.

Tampa takes two or three days. Ybor City's brick cigar factories and Latin social clubs tell a real immigrant story. Henry Plant's Moorish-looking railway hotel, the art museum and the history centre fill out the riverfront. Neither is a major art destination, but the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg is half an hour from Tampa.

Tampa gives you a choice of nights out. Ybor's Seventh Avenue is loud, young and full of clubs that stay open late. South Howard's patios and cocktail bars are more polished, and the Riverwalk has rooftops and a strong craft beer scene. The Gasparilla pirate invasion turns the bayfront into one big winter street party.

Fort Myers winds down early. The River District has a few pubs and a monthly art walk, and the pier on Fort Myers Beach draws sunset crowds and spring-breakers in March. Beyond that there's little after about midnight.

Fort Myers has the stronger wildlife. The Ding Darling refuge on Sanibel is a top place for roseate spoonbills and herons, Corkscrew Swamp's boardwalk runs through old-growth bald cypress, and the Great Calusa Blueway offers miles of mangrove paddling. In winter, manatees gather near the Orange River.

Tampa's outdoors are good but more spread out. You can kayak the cypress of Hillsborough River State Park or see manatees at Apollo Beach. Its one real advantage is the clear, turquoise springs around Crystal River and Weeki Wachee, an hour or more north.

Both have a similar range of drives, but the outings feel different. From Fort Myers they lead to quiet island villages and wild coast: Sanibel and Captiva, sleepy Boca Grande, the Koreshan settlement and Everglades City at the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands. Smart Naples is under an hour away.

Tampa's outings are towns and buildings: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs, Dunedin's main street and the Frank Lloyd Wright campus at Lakeland. Sarasota's Ringling estate is about an hour from Tampa and an hour and a half from Fort Myers.

Tampa has far more ready-made days out for children. Busch Gardens pairs roller coasters with an animal park and has a water park next door, and ZooTampa, the Florida Aquarium and the children's museum fill the gaps. Legoland and Orlando are a manageable day trip.

Fort Myers is gentler and simpler. Calm, shallow water, shell hunting on Sanibel, dolphin boats and the Shell Factory keep young children happy, and spring-training baseball is a relaxed outing in March. However, there's no big attraction, and Orlando is about three hours away.

You'll need a car in both. Tampa at least lets you spend a day or two without one, since the streetcar links Downtown, the Channel District and Ybor City and the Riverwalk is pleasant on foot.

In Fort Myers, only the small River District and the trolley along Fort Myers Beach work without a car. Everything else is spread across a low-density county, and in winter the traffic over the bridges to Sanibel and the beaches backs up badly.

Neither is a reason to go shopping, but what you'll find differs. Fort Myers is best for bargains at the outlet mall towards Estero and for browsing shell shops and galleries along Sanibel's Periwinkle Way.

Tampa has the luxury brands in its big mall near the airport and the boutiques of Hyde Park Village. It also has one local craft: cigars still rolled by hand in small Ybor City shops.

Costs are much the same: American restaurant prices with tax and tip, a car you can't do without, expensive winter beachfront stays and cheaper summers. In Fort Myers the gap between a Sanibel condo and a hotel near the interstate is wide, and the causeway and some beach parking charge fees, though the reserves and beaches themselves cost little.

In Tampa, Cuban sandwich counters make lunch cheap, but theme park tickets add up fast for a family.

Tampa has the fuller programme. The Straz Center hosts a resident opera company, ballet, plays and touring musicals, and the Florida Orchestra plays there. The ornate 1926 Tampa Theatre and the indie venues in Ybor City add films and smaller gigs.

Fort Myers has a decent winter season: Broadway tours at the Barbara B. Mann hall, a repertory company in a restored 1908 theatre and a regional symphony. In summer the programme largely stops.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and spas in both mostly sit inside resorts. The difference is the setting. In Fort Myers, calm is part of the place: Sanibel and Captiva have low buildings, bike paths and early nights.

Tampa has a few substantial hotel spas, but the city itself is sprawling and humid. Visitors looking for rest usually stay on the islands across the bay instead.