Key West or Varadero?

This is where Varadero pulls clearly ahead. Key West's water is warm and calm behind the reef, but its town beaches are small. Smathers is imported sand, Fort Zachary Taylor has a coral-rubble shore that calls for water shoes, and seaweed and seagrass get in the way of wading out.

Varadero's northern shore is roughly 20km of unbroken powdery sand on shallow turquoise water. It is lively by the town's numbered streets and quiet and spacious in front of the eastern resorts. It is the kind of beach Key West visitors drive to Bahia Honda to find.

Both kitchens share Cuban roots, but Key West makes more of them. Pink shrimp, grouper, stone crab in the cooler months and conch fritters are served at dockside shacks around the Historic Seaport, with café con leche from takeaway windows in the morning and a few more ambitious dining rooms in Old Town.

In Varadero most meals are resort buffets. The private restaurants in town cook ropa vieja, roast pork and lobster well on a good night, but menus depend on what ingredients turn up. The pleasures there are simpler: a daiquiri, fresh fruit and sweet coffee.

Key West has more to see, mostly because the town itself is a sight. Its large district of conch cottages and Victorian verandas rewards slow walking, and the Hemingway Home, the Truman Little White House and the shipwreck collections fill two easy days.

In Varadero a few hours will do: the Du Pont family's Xanadu Mansion on its headland, a small museum in a wooden summer house and pre-Columbian drawings in the Cueva de Ambrosio. On the peninsula there is little history to see.

Key West has the stronger night out. The evening starts at sunset on Mallory Square and moves along Duval Street's open-sided bars and rooftop decks until the small hours. The crowd mixes cruise passengers, fishermen and an established gay scene at the upper end, though there are few real clubs.

Varadero's evenings mostly happen in resort lobby bars and at animation shows. In town, the salsa clubs where locals dance with real skill and the disco in a limestone cave offer something Key West doesn't, dancing rather than drinking, but most nights end well before dawn.

Both are flat, and both put their outdoors at sea, but Key West has the better water. Snorkelling and diving boats leave daily for the Florida Reef, the mangrove flats are known for sight-fishing tarpon and bonefish, and the remote Dry Tortugas offer clear water and good birdwatching.

Varadero has catamaran trips to offshore cays, reefs and wrecks, and kitesurfing in the windy winter months. On land it has a little more than Key West: dry-forest trails in the Varahicacos reserve and a cenote to swim in at Cueva de Saturno.

Varadero is much better placed for days away. Havana is about two hours by road, and many visitors wish they had given it longer. Matanzas, with its bridges and nineteenth-century theatre, is forty minutes off, and Cárdenas and the Bay of Pigs make quieter outings.

Key West sits at the end of the road. The ferry to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas is a memorable day, and the drive over the Seven Mile Bridge to Marathon has its moments, but Miami is too far for a comfortable return trip.

With small children Varadero is the easier choice. The sea is shallow and calm right off the sand, all-inclusive meals remove a daily chore, and many resorts have kids' clubs. The catch is supplies: bring medicines, nappies and sun cream, as these are hard to find there and medical care is basic.

Key West offers glass-bottom boats, the butterfly conservatory and the Hemingway cats. Still, Duval Street's drinking starts early, and families do better staying in the quiet residential lanes.

Key West is far simpler to move around. Old Town is compact and flat, and almost everything is a short walk or bike ride from Duval Street, so a car is more trouble than help.

Varadero stretches along about 20km of a single road. Beyond the walkable grid at the town end, you rely on the open-top tourist bus, taxis and coco-taxis, and any trip off the peninsula means booking a transfer or a driver in advance.

Neither is a shopping destination, though Key West has a little more to browse. Its Old Town galleries sell tropical prints and local craft, alongside hand-rolled cigars and harbour sponge shops. In Varadero there are craft-market carvings, crochet and Che T-shirts, and rum and cigars are worth buying from official shops. Everyday items can be scarce there, so pack properly.

Varadero costs far less. Its all-inclusive packages are some of the cheapest ways to reach white Caribbean sand, though taxis, excursions and private restaurants are priced for foreigners once you leave the resort.

Key West is expensive at every step. Its old conch-house guesthouses and waterfront resorts charge well above most American cities, and Duval drinks, dive trips and the Tortugas ferry add up. Late summer, the hot and stormy season, is the cheapest time to go.

Key West has the fuller stage. Every evening Mallory Square fills with jugglers, tightrope walkers and trained-cat acts at sunset, drag cabaret is a long-standing tradition, and the Tennessee Williams Theatre and a winter symphony season give it a small formal side.

Varadero's music is more casual, though often better played. Son and salsa trios play in hotel lobbies, full bands play in the dance clubs, and the resorts put on feathered cabaret shows. For ballet or serious concerts you go to Havana.

The two are about level, and neither has a bathing tradition. They differ in how the calm comes. In Key West you find it in guesthouses around small garden pools and on the quiet lanes of Old Town, with the bars never far away. In Varadero it comes from long resort days with nothing to organise, especially at the eastern end, though spa standards vary.