Marco Island or Varadero?

Both are calm, shallow, pale-sand beaches that suit easy swimming, but Varadero has the bigger and more striking beach. Marco Island's western shore is one curving crescent facing the Gulf. Tigertail's lagoon and sandbar are made for wading and shelling, and you can reach the untouched sand of Keewaydin Island by boat. The catch is a winter sea that cools to a level some visitors find too chilly.

Varadero's northern shore runs almost unbroken for 20km of powdery sand on clear turquoise water that stays warm all year. You can share the town end with Cuban families or walk out to the empty coves near the tip. Its rough spells come from occasional winter cold fronts and the hurricane season, not from cold water.

Marco Island eats better, though neither is a destination for food. Its strength is Gulf seafood eaten by the water, with grouper, shrimp, oysters and stone crab claws in the cooler months, and dockside fish platters in Goodland. For a more ambitious dinner, the restaurants of Naples are half an hour away.

In Varadero most meals are resort buffets. The private restaurants in town cook Cuban staples such as ropa vieja and grilled lobster well on a good day, but the menu depends on what can be found. The best things you'll taste there are a daiquiri, fresh fruit and a strong Cuban coffee.

Neither is a place for sightseeing, and the difference lies in how the little there is comes packaged. On Marco Island it sits under one roof: the Historical Museum covers the Calusa, the carved wooden figures found here in the 1890s and the clam-cannery years, and beyond it the island is canals, condominiums and the fishing village of Goodland. For galleries you drive to Naples.

Varadero's few sights are spread along the peninsula instead. There is the Du Pont family's Xanadu Mansion on its rocky headland, a small museum in an old wooden summer house, the early twentieth-century villas of the town end and the pre-Columbian drawings in the Cueva de Ambrosio. A few hours cover them all, and Cuba's real history is in the cities beyond the peninsula.

Varadero has more of an evening life. Beyond the resort lobby bars and animation shows, the town has open-air bars, salsa clubs where locals dance very well and a disco set inside a limestone cave, and Cuban visitors fill it on weekends. It still winds down well before dawn.

Marco Island's evenings centre on sunset drinks on a waterfront deck and dinner, then quiet. Goodland's dock bars are at their busiest on winter weekend afternoons, not late at night, and the crowd is older.

Marco Island is much stronger for nature. It sits at the edge of the Ten Thousand Islands, so kayaking through mangroves, manatees in the canals, dolphin trips and some of Florida's best inshore fishing start from the island. Rookery Bay, Everglades National Park, Big Cypress and the Fakahatchee Strand, with their alligators and wading birds, are all within an hour.

Varadero's land is a narrow strip of scrub with short trails in the Varahicacos reserve and the Saturno cave pool inland. Most outdoor time there goes on the water: snorkelling and diving on reefs and wrecks, catamarans to offshore cays and kitesurfing in the winter winds.

Varadero has the better day out by far, because Havana is about two hours away and its old town, the Malecón and the classic cars fill a memorable day. Nearer at hand there are Matanzas with its nineteenth-century theatre and old French pharmacy, the horse carts of Cárdenas, and the Bay of Pigs for a longer trip.

Marco Island's outings are pleasant but milder. There's the pier and gallery streets of Naples, the old trading post at Chokoloskee, the Edison and Ford Winter Estates at Fort Myers, and the shell beaches of Sanibel and Captiva.

Families with small children will find both work about equally well, and for the same reason: shallow, calm water and soft sand. Marco Island is easier to manage. Resort pools and kids' programmes, wading at Tigertail and dolphin boat trips fill the days, the Naples zoo and children's museum are close, and anything you forgot can be bought locally.

Varadero gives warmer winter swimming, and the all-inclusive format means nobody has to plan meals. Kids' clubs, the dolphin centre and rowing boats in Josone Park add variety. Parents should pack medicines, nappies and sun cream, though, as these are hard to find and medical care is basic.

Varadero is the easier place to get around without a car. The old town's grid of numbered streets is pleasant to walk, and an open-top tourist bus, taxis, coco-taxis, carriages and rental bikes cover the rest of the peninsula. Trips further afield need a transfer, a tour or a car with a driver.

On Marco Island you can cycle between the beach and the shops on flat paths in the cooler months, but almost everything beyond that assumes a hire car, from the Everglades to Naples and the airport.

Marco Island comes out ahead, thanks mostly to Naples. Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South have upmarket boutiques and galleries, and there are open-air malls with department stores, while the island's own plazas sell resort wear and shell décor.

Varadero offers craft-market carvings, crochet and paintings along the main avenue. Rum and cigars are the real buys, and they are best bought from official shops. Fashion is absent, and even everyday items can be scarce.

Varadero costs much less, as long as you stay inside an all-inclusive package, which undercuts most Caribbean rivals. Taxis, excursions and private restaurants are priced for foreigners, so independent roaming brings the cost closer to middling.

Marco Island is expensive in every way, especially from January to April. Beachfront rooms, dining aimed at a wealthy winter crowd and a hire car all add up. Summer rates and weekly condo rentals with kitchens help, but it never becomes a cheap trip.

Neither has much of a stage, but the music feels different. In Varadero it is everywhere in a casual way: son and salsa trios in lobbies and on terraces, good bands in the dance clubs and feathered cabaret in the resorts. For ballet or serious Cuban music you go to Havana. Marco Island offers a resort guitarist in winter and a small community theatre, and its one real option is the Naples philharmonic, half an hour away and mostly in season.

The two are close here. Neither has a bathing tradition, so wellness in both means resort spas and slow days. Marco Island is a little more polished, with full-service spas overlooking the Gulf plus yoga and day spas in the island's plazas. Varadero's treatments often take place in open-air cabins by the sea, though standards vary, and the quietest unwinding is at the eastern-end resorts.