Naples, Florida or Tampa?

In Naples the beach is right in town. Fine pale sand runs along the whole city, the water is calm and clear, and people gather at the pier for sunset, with Vanderbilt Beach, Delnor-Wiggins Pass and the dunes of Barefoot Beach a short way north. The downsides are occasional algae blooms and stingrays in the shallows.

Tampa's own shoreline on the bay is mostly seawall. Its good beaches at Clearwater, Pass-a-Grille, Fort De Soto and Caladesi Island have soft white sand too, but they are between half an hour and an hour away by car. Unless you stay on the islands, every swim is a planned outing.

Tampa has a food history that Naples lacks. The Cuban, Spanish and Sicilian roots of Ybor City gave it the pressed Cuban sandwich with salami, deviled crab croquettes and old bakeries serving café con leche, and food halls and casual places in Seminole Heights add to the mix.

Naples eats well but plays it safe, with steak, Italian and modern American cooking in the dining rooms of Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South. Prices are higher and there is little street food. Both cities serve Gulf grouper and stone crab, and in Naples the dockside fish houses around Tin City are the place to eat them.

Neither city is a cultural destination, but Tampa has two or three days of real heritage. There are the brick cigar factories and Latin social clubs of Ybor City, Henry Plant's railway hotel with its silver minarets and museum, and the art and history museums along the river.

Naples fills about a day. The modern and American art at the Baker Museum, the historic racing cars of the Revs Institute and the glimpse of the early town at Palm Cottage are worth seeing, and the Mediterranean-style streets of Old Naples are pleasant to walk. Most of the time here goes on the outdoors.

Tampa gives you a proper night out. Seventh Avenue in Ybor City runs late with dance clubs and a young weekend crowd, SoHo has cocktail bars and patios, and the Riverwalk adds rooftop bars and brewery taprooms. Every winter the Gasparilla pirate invasion turns the bayfront into a huge street party.

Evenings in Naples mean a sunset drink, dinner and an early night. The wine bars and piano lounges of Fifth Avenue South and a few waterfront tiki bars suit an older crowd, and most of the town is quiet before midnight.

Naples is closer to the real wilderness. Big Cypress, the western Everglades, the boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp and the orchids of Fakahatchee Strand are all within an hour. Kayaking the mangrove channels of the Ten Thousand Islands is an outing Tampa has nothing to match.

Tampa's outdoors is gentler and more spread out: paddling through cypress swamp on the Hillsborough River, manatees at Apollo Beach in winter, and the clear spring-fed rivers of Crystal River and Weeki Wachee an hour or more north. Both cities are flat and best explored in winter, before the summer heat and storms.

Tampa is surrounded by more places worth a day. St Petersburg and its Dalí Museum are half an hour across the bay, Tarpon Springs has its Greek sponge docks, Lakeland has a campus of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, and Sarasota's Ringling estate is about an hour south.

From Naples the choice is thinner. There are the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, the shelling islands of Sanibel and Captiva, and Everglades City, while Sarasota and Miami are both about two hours away. From either city, every trip needs a car.

Tampa has the bigger attractions for children. Busch Gardens has roller coasters, an animal park and a water park next door, and there are also ZooTampa, the Florida Aquarium and the splash pads along the Riverwalk. Legoland and Orlando are within reach on a long day.

Naples is gentler and simpler. The water in town is calm and shallow, children can hunt for shells and watch dolphins from the shore, and the boat ride past the primate islands at Naples Zoo and the Golisano Children's Museum suit younger children well. There is no theme park nearby, though, and Orlando is well over three hours away.

Outside the centre, both are car cities, with thin bus services and a drive to every beach and day trip. The difference is in the centre. Old Naples is a small, flat grid where visitors can walk or cycle between the beach, Fifth Avenue South and the pier.

Tampa's walkable core is bigger and more urban. A heritage-style streetcar links downtown, the Channel District and Ybor City, and the Riverwalk follows the river. Rush-hour traffic on the bridges and interstates adds time to any trip to the beach.

Naples is the more enjoyable place to shop. Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South have galleries, jewellers and resort-wear boutiques under the palms, an open-air luxury mall sits north of downtown, and the old clam-shelling sheds of Tin City sell nautical souvenirs.

In Tampa, shopping mostly means malls, with Hyde Park Village as its pleasant pocket of boutiques. What it has that Naples lacks is a living craft: in small shops in Ybor City, cigars are still rolled by hand.

Tampa is the cheaper base, though not a cheap one. Hotels away from the beaches are reasonable, Cuban bakeries and sandwich counters make lunch inexpensive, and rates drop noticeably in summer. The main extra costs are a car and, for families, theme-park tickets.

Naples is priced for wealthy winter visitors. Beachfront rates are at their highest from about January to April, restaurants are expensive, and you will need a rental car as well. Summer is much cheaper there too, and staying inland or in Fort Myers cuts costs.

The Straz Center gives Tampa the wider programme, with opera, ballet, plays and touring Broadway shows under one roof. The Florida Orchestra also plays there, the ornate Tampa Theatre shows films and hosts concerts, arena tours stop downtown, and Ybor City has small rock and indie venues.

For a city its size, Naples does well, but its arts are seasonal. The Naples Philharmonic, touring shows and a professional theatre company fill the calendar from late autumn to spring, and in summer there is very little on.

Naples is the more restful place to stay. The large spas at the beachfront resorts are open to non-guests, the streets are quiet, and long sunset walks and golf set a slow pace for the whole town.

Tampa itself is spread out and humid, so unwinding there means a hotel spa or a move to the Gulf islands across the bay. Neither city has thermal springs or a spa tradition of its own.