Marco Island or Tampa?

Marco Island has the better beach because you're already on it. Its western shore is one broad crescent of fine sand facing the open Gulf. The water is shallow and calm, Tigertail has a tidal lagoon, and Keewaydin Island is a short boat ride away.

Tampa faces a bay lined mostly with seawall. Its fine white beaches at Clearwater, Pass-a-Grille and Fort De Soto are excellent, but they're a drive of half an hour to an hour. Beach days there are outings, not the rhythm of the stay.

Tampa has the stronger food scene and a story behind it. The cigar workers of Ybor City left a Cuban, Spanish and Sicilian tradition: pressed Cuban sandwiches with salami, deviled crab croquettes and old bakeries. Seminole Heights, South Tampa and the food halls add range.

Marco Island mostly serves seafood with a view: grouper, shrimp and winter stone crab at waterfront grills, and fish platters by the docks in Goodland. Beyond that there's little choice, and for a more ambitious dinner people drive to Naples.

Tampa has more to see, though none of it is of international rank. Ybor City's brick cigar factories and Latin social clubs, Henry Plant's railway hotel with its Moorish minarets, and the art and history museums on the river fill two or three days well.

Marco Island is a resort largely built from the 1960s on. Its one real cultural stop is the historical museum, which covers the Calusa people and the carved wooden figures found on the island. Anyone wanting more has to go to Naples.

The gap is wide. Tampa has a loud, young club strip on Seventh Avenue in Ybor City, polished patios and cocktail bars in SoHo, and rooftops and craft breweries along the Riverwalk. Each winter the Gasparilla pirate invasion turns the bayfront into a huge street party.

On Marco Island, the night out is a sunset drink on a waterfront deck and a late dinner. There are no clubs, the crowd is mostly retirees and families, and the island is quiet well before midnight.

Marco Island has wilder country right on its doorstep. The mangrove channels of the Ten Thousand Islands start at the island's edge, and you can paddle, fish for snook and tarpon, and watch dolphins and manatees there. Rookery Bay is just north, and Everglades National Park, Big Cypress and the Fakahatchee Strand are all within an hour.

Tampa's outdoors is good but more spread out. It has cypress swamp kayaking on the Hillsborough River, winter manatees at Apollo Beach, and clear spring-fed rivers around Crystal River an hour or more north.

Tampa has the more varied list of trips. You can see the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the Greek sponge docks at Tarpon Springs, the Ringling estate in Sarasota, and Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings in Lakeland.

Marco Island's best outings are into nature. The town trips are fewer: Naples' pier and gallery streets, the old trading post at Chokoloskee, and the Edison and Ford Winter Estates at Fort Myers. Neither place has old historic towns within reach.

Tampa is the stronger choice for families because of its attractions. It has Busch Gardens' roller coasters and animal park with a water park next door, ZooTampa's manatees, the Florida Aquarium and the splash pads along the Riverwalk. Legoland and Orlando are within reach for a long day.

Marco Island suits younger children more simply. They get soft sand, calm shallow water, wading at Tigertail and resort pools. Older children may get restless without the zoo and museum in Naples or an airboat ride in the Everglades.

You'll need a car in both places. The difference is the scale. Marco Island is small and flat, with cycle paths linking the beach, shops and restaurants, but everything off the island means driving.

Tampa's centre can be done on foot along the Riverwalk, with a heritage streetcar to Ybor City. Beyond that it sprawls, so reaching the beaches and Busch Gardens means driving and sitting in bridge traffic at rush hour.

On Marco Island the plazas mostly sell resort wear, beach gear, shells and coastal décor. Serious shoppers drive half an hour to the boutiques and galleries of Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South in Naples.

Tampa offers more within the city itself. There's an upscale mall near the airport with luxury and department-store brands, and the small open-air boutique streets of Hyde Park Village. It also has a real local craft in the cigars still rolled by hand in Ybor City.

Neither is cheap, but Tampa is noticeably easier on the budget. Cuban bakeries and sandwich counters keep lunch affordable, and city hotels cost less than beachfront rooms. Theme parks and a hire car are the big extra costs.

Marco Island is priced for a well-off winter crowd. Beachfront resorts and condos cost most from January to April, and there's almost no cheap food. Summer rates and condos with kitchens help, but it never becomes a budget trip.

Live performance on Marco Island is small-scale: a community theatre, occasional concerts and guitarists in resort bars during the winter season. For an orchestra or a touring show, people drive to the performing arts centre in Naples, which is busiest in winter.

The Straz Center on the river gives Tampa a real programme of its own, with touring musicals, opera, ballet and the Florida Orchestra. The ornate 1926 Tampa Theatre hosts concerts under its twinkling ceiling, and Ybor City has small rock and indie venues.

Marco Island is the more restful place to stay. The whole island moves slowly, its beachfront resorts have full spas looking over the Gulf, and the plazas have yoga classes.

Tampa is a sprawling, car-bound city that doesn't feel restorative, even with some good hotel spas. People after quiet there usually book on the barrier islands instead. Neither place has thermal baths or a bathing tradition.