Palm Beach or Tampa?

Palm Beach has the sea on its doorstep. The Gulf Stream keeps the Atlantic clear and warm, the Municipal Beach and Phipps Ocean Park are close to most stays, and Peanut Island's shallow lagoon is good for snorkelling. The drawback is that the island's sand is narrow in places and much of it sits behind private estates.

Tampa's beaches are prettier, with soft white sand at Clearwater, Pass-a-Grille and Fort De Soto and a gentle Gulf. But they lie across the bridges, up to an hour away by car, and the water turns cool in winter. In Palm Beach a swim fits into every day, while in Tampa it is an outing.

Tampa has the more distinctive food. The cigar-factory immigrants of Ybor City gave it its own Cuban sandwich with salami, deviled crab croquettes and a century-old tradition of Spanish dining. Food halls and casual places in Seminole Heights add everyday range.

Palm Beach eats formally and well, with French and Italian dining rooms off Worth Avenue and stone crab in season. It has no local food tradition, though, and the more varied Cuban and Caribbean cooking is across the bridge in West Palm Beach.

Both have a short list of sights that takes two or three days, and both were shaped by a railway baron, Flagler in Palm Beach and Plant in Tampa. What differs is the story they tell. Palm Beach shows the architecture of wealth: Flagler's marble Whitehall, Mizner's tiled vias and the estates along South Ocean Boulevard. The Norton Museum adds a serious art collection.

Tampa's heritage is working-class and immigrant, seen in the brick cigar factories and Latin social clubs of Ybor City and in the minaret-topped Plant hotel. Visitors to Tampa who want more art cross the bay to St Petersburg.

Tampa gives you a real choice of evenings. Seventh Avenue in Ybor City has clubs and a loud weekend crowd that stays out late, SoHo has cocktail patios, and the craft beer scene runs deep. In winter, Gasparilla turns the bayfront into a huge street party.

Palm Beach goes quiet by eleven, after dinner and a drink in a hotel bar, and much of its social life happens in private clubs. A night out means crossing to Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, which is fun but small.

Both are flat and subtropical, best enjoyed on the water early in the day, but their strengths lie in different places. Palm Beach's is underwater. Reefs lie close offshore, and the shallow dive site under the Blue Heron Bridge is famous for seahorses and octopus. Loxahatchee adds Everglades boardwalks with alligators.

Tampa looks inland. You can paddle through cypress swamp on the Hillsborough River, through mangrove tunnels in the bay, or on the clear spring-fed rivers around Crystal River, an hour or more north. In winter, manatees gather in warm water near both cities.

The two are evenly matched here, and both reach mostly resort towns with little old history nearby. The difference is in kind. Palm Beach has one big outing, Miami, which the fast train reaches without a car. Tampa has a spread of smaller trips, nearly all by car: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the Greek sponge docks at Tarpon Springs, the Ringling estate in Sarasota and the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings at Lakeland.

Tampa suits a family trip in a way Palm Beach does not. Busch Gardens pairs roller coasters with an animal park, the Florida Aquarium and ZooTampa fill other days, and Legoland and the Orlando parks are within reach for a long day out.

Palm Beach is safe and calm, with gentle beaches, Peanut Island's lagoon and easy family cycling on the Lake Trail. But its island restaurants and boutiques are adult territory, and the zoo, science centre and safari park are all over the bridge.

Neither works well without a car, but Palm Beach is the easier of the two. The island is flat and easy to cycle along the Lake Trail, downtown West Palm Beach has a free trolley loop, and the fast train gets you to Miami without driving.

In Tampa, the walkable part is limited to downtown, the Riverwalk and the streetcar line to Ybor City. The beaches, Busch Gardens and every day trip mean a drive, often through traffic on the bridges.

Palm Beach is worth a trip for shopping alone. Worth Avenue gathers the major luxury houses among Mizner's courtyards, and its consignment shops sell designer pieces from wealthy residents' wardrobes. Antique Row in West Palm Beach is a long run of dealers.

Tampa's shopping is mostly in malls, with Hyde Park Village a pleasant open-air exception. Its one local speciality is the cigar, still rolled by hand in small Ybor City shops.

Tampa is much easier on the wallet, though still not cheap by world standards. Cuban sandwich counters keep lunch modest and beach hotels cost less in summer. A hire car and theme park tickets are the main extra costs.

Palm Beach is one of the most expensive resort towns in the country, with island hotels and restaurants priced for the very wealthy. Staying in West Palm Beach, coming in summer and making the most of the free beaches and the Lake Trail all help.

Each city has one large venue for touring Broadway shows, ballet and opera: the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach and the Straz Center in Tampa. The main stage is therefore much the same in both. Palm Beach follows the winter season, with chamber concerts at the Society of the Four Arts and serious plays at Palm Beach Dramaworks, and the calendar thins out after spring.

Tampa's programme reaches further into popular music. It has the Florida Orchestra, films and concerts under the twinkling ceiling of the 1926 Tampa Theatre, arena tours and small rock venues in Ybor City.

Palm Beach is restful in itself: quiet, slow and manicured, with large oceanfront resort spas, salt-water pools and yoga on the beach, though nothing communal or cheap. Tampa has hotel spas too, but the city is sprawling and car-bound. For real calm you have to move out to the barrier islands, where days revolve around sunsets and long lunches.