Pigeon Forge or Sarasota?

These two aren't close. Pigeon Forge sits in the Tennessee foothills, so swimming means a summer dip in Douglas Lake, wading among the boulders in the park's streams or a day at the water park beside Dollywood.

Sarasota is built around its beaches. Siesta Key's powder-fine quartz sand stays cool underfoot and shelves gently into the water, which suits children. Lido Key is minutes from downtown, and Venice adds hunting for fossilised shark teeth. Check for red tide before a beach day.

Neither is worth planning a trip around a meal, but Sarasota eats better. Pigeon Forge means pancake houses, Southern buffets and barbecue along the Parkway, with moonshine tastings as its one local touch. Serious Appalachian cooking means a drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

Sarasota has Gulf seafood, from grouper sandwiches to stone crab claws, and more polished dining on Main Street and St Armands Circle. It also has the hearty cooking and pie of the family restaurants in Pinecraft, the Amish and Mennonite winter colony.

Sarasota has a real cultural centrepiece in the Ringling: Baroque paintings, Ca' d'Zan, the Venetian Gothic mansion, and the circus museum. Architecture fans can also seek out the mid-century modernist buildings of the Sarasota School.

Pigeon Forge offers entertainment rather than heritage, with a half-scale Titanic, illusion museums and car collections. The Old Mill of 1830 is its one real historic building. To see the region's mountain past, go to the log cabins and churches in the national park.

Both are quiet after dark, in different ways. In Pigeon Forge the evenings belong to families, with go-karts and lit-up attraction complexes open until about ten. Adults get only a few sports bars, brewpubs and moonshine tasting rooms, so many drive to Gatlinburg.

Sarasota gives grown-ups a little more: wine and cocktail bars on Main Street, and open-air beach bars in Siesta Key Village for sunset drinks. The crowd is older and nights end early, so a real night out means Tampa or St Petersburg.

Pigeon Forge is the clear winner for landscape. Half an hour up the road, the Great Smoky Mountains rise to more than 2,000m. Trails run from the short walk to Laurel Falls to the climb up Mount LeConte, wildflowers come out in spring and the hardwood forests turn colour in October.

Sarasota's land is flat but full of wildlife. Myakka River State Park has alligators and a treetop walkway, and you can paddle through the mangrove tunnels or across the bay among dolphins, manatees and wading birds.

The two are about level for excursions, but the trips are different in kind. From Pigeon Forge they are mountain and Southern: Gatlinburg next door, Knoxville's Market Square, and Cherokee over Newfound Gap, with the Biltmore Estate in Asheville as the big day out.

From Sarasota you follow the Gulf coast to its cities and towns: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, Ybor City in Tampa, the Greek sponge-diving town of Tarpon Springs, and the Edison and Ford winter estates at Fort Myers.

Pigeon Forge exists for families, and it shows. Dollywood's coasters, crafts and seasonal festivals, its water park, the mountain coasters, the mini-golf and the easy waterfall walks can fill several days, and big cabins and water-park hotels can house a whole extended family. The drawbacks are needing a car and sitting in traffic at peak times.

Sarasota offers less for children, though it is gentler: about the calmest beaches there are, the sharks and manatees at Mote Marine Laboratory, and the circus model at the Ringling. The nearest theme park is Busch Gardens in Tampa.

You need a car in both, but Sarasota is a little easier. Downtown, St Armands Circle and Siesta Key Village are pleasant to walk, a free trolley runs along Siesta Key and the keys suit a bicycle, though traffic on the bridges builds in winter.

Pigeon Forge is a multi-lane commercial strip where walking stops at the edge of each attraction complex. The Parkway trolley is slow, misses the hillside cabins and doesn't reach the trailheads.

For an afternoon of browsing, Sarasota has the edge, though few people travel to either place to shop. Pigeon Forge sells outlet brands and mountain crafts: American mid-market outlets along the Parkway towards Sevierville, quilts, pottery and stone-ground cornmeal at the Old Mill, and broom, basket and leather studios in the hills above Gatlinburg.\n\nSarasota is more pleasant for wandering. You can spend an unhurried afternoon looking at resort wear, jewellery and art around St Armands Circle, then try the independent boutiques and galleries on Main Street and Palm Avenue.

Pigeon Forge is the cheaper stay. Thousands of motel rooms and rental cabins keep lodging reasonable, a shared cabin works out cheaply per person and the buffets are inexpensive, though theme park days and dinner shows add up.

Sarasota charges full Gulf resort rates, especially on Siesta Key and Longboat Key from January to April. Coming in summer, staying on the mainland and using the free public beaches all lower the bill.

Shows fill the evenings in both towns, but Sarasota's stages offer far more range and ambition. Every night the Parkway theatres in Pigeon Forge put on country and gospel revues, comedy, magic and dinner shows with horses or pirate ships, and Dollywood adds bluegrass and gospel through the day. It is broad, sentimental family entertainment and nothing more.\n\nSarasota has serious performing arts on a small-city scale: an opera company in a restored 1920s theatre, a ballet known for its Ashton repertoire, a full orchestra season and the Asolo Repertory Theatre. Plan for autumn to spring, when most of the season runs.

Sarasota is the easier place to unwind. The whole town moves slowly, and the spas on Longboat Key and Lido Key offer treatments. Yoga classes are sometimes held on the sand at sunrise. About forty minutes south, Warm Mineral Springs is a spring-fed pool that stays warm all year and has drawn bathers for generations.

In Pigeon Forge, how calm your stay is depends on where you sleep. A hillside cabin with a porch and a hot tub looking over the ridges is restful, but down on the Parkway it is all neon, crowds and queues of traffic.