Savannah or Tampa?

Neither city is on the open sea, so a beach day means a drive from either. From Savannah it takes about half an hour to reach Tybee Island, a low-key beach town with wide, flat sand and greenish-brown water coloured by the marshes. It is good for a walk and a paddle but rarely the reason for the trip.

Tampa's barrier islands are a clear step up. Clearwater Beach, St Pete Beach, Pass-a-Grille and the quieter Fort De Soto and Caladesi Island have soft white sand and calm Gulf water, and there are several to choose from rather than just one. Some are up to an hour away by car, which is why visitors who come mainly for the beach often stay on the islands.

Both cities eat well without much depth at the top end, but the flavours are different. Savannah cooks in the Lowcountry Southern tradition: shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Lowcountry boil and oyster roasts in the cooler months, often served family-style at long tables, with a few chef-led kitchens in restored townhouses.

Tampa's own tradition comes from the Cuban, Spanish and Sicilian cigar workers of Ybor City. Expect pressed Cuban sandwiches with salami, deviled crab croquettes and café con leche from old bakeries, plus grouper and stone crab by the bay. Beyond that heritage it is a broader modern American mix, so Tampa offers more variety and Savannah a single, stronger identity.

Savannah is well ahead here. Its 1733 grid of garden squares, the live oaks hung with moss and the run of period houses, churches and cotton warehouses make the whole historic district worth seeing in its own right. The Telfair Museums, the Owens-Thomas House and Bonaventure Cemetery round it out.

Tampa's heritage is narrower: the brick cigar factories and Latin social clubs of Ybor City, Henry Plant's Moorish-looking railway hotel, which now houses a museum, and a pair of riverside museums. That fills a couple of days, and keen art lovers tend to head across the bay to St Petersburg.

A night out is about as good in either city, but the two feel different. Savannah is a stroll-and-sip town. To-go cups let you wander from the cobbled bars of River Street to the taverns around City Market and quiet cocktail rooms in old townhouses, and most of it winds down early.

Tampa has more of a late scene. The dance clubs on Seventh Avenue in Ybor City keep going until closing time, SoHo has polished patios, and the craft beer taprooms are worth a visit in their own right. Each city has one huge street party a year: St Patrick's Day in Savannah and the Gasparilla pirate invasion in Tampa.

Both sit in flat, watery country, where the appeal is paddling and wildlife rather than views. Around Savannah that means salt marsh and tidal creeks, best kayaked at high tide, with dolphins, wading birds and the avenue of oaks at Wormsloe.

Tampa has the wider range: cypress swamp on the Hillsborough River, mangrove tunnels, manatees in winter, and the clear, turquoise spring-fed rivers around Crystal River and Weeki Wachee, about an hour or more north. You can also spend time outdoors through Tampa's mild winter, while Savannah's season is mostly spring and autumn.

Savannah has the better day trips, mainly because the places around it have more history and character. Charleston, about two hours away, is a historic city worth the drive on its own, and Beaufort, Fort Pulaski and Jekyll Island add more history closer at hand.

Tampa's outings are varied but lighter: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs, the Ringling estate in Sarasota and the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in Lakeland. Nearly every trip from either city needs a car.

This is where Tampa is furthest ahead. Busch Gardens, with its roller coasters and animal park, the water park, ZooTampa, the Florida Aquarium and the children's museum can fill most of a week, and the shallow Gulf beaches suit toddlers.

Savannah is pleasant with children but has no zoo, aquarium or theme park. Families make do with trolley tours, the free river ferry, ghost walks, the forts and the birthplace of the Girl Scouts' founder, which is enough for a few days.

Savannah is much easier without a car. The historic district is flat and compact, most hotels, restaurants and sights are a short walk apart, and a free shuttle and the river ferry fill the gaps. Only Bonaventure Cemetery, Wormsloe and Tybee need wheels.

In Tampa, the walkable part is limited to downtown, the Riverwalk and the streetcar to Ybor City. The beaches, theme parks and South Tampa are all a drive away, buses are slow, and rush-hour traffic on the bridges adds time, so most visitors hire a car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, so the difference lies in how you shop. In Savannah you do it on foot, along Broughton Street and through the squares south of it, where independent boutiques, work by art-school students and antique dealers fit easily between the sights.

Tampa has more of the big brand names, but you need a car to reach them. The luxury labels are gathered in one large mall near the airport, and Hyde Park Village is a smaller open-air option. What Savannah cannot match is a cigar hand-rolled in Ybor City, the one souvenir here with real local roots.

Both are priced like American destinations, so neither is cheap, though Tampa is a little easier on the budget. Its hotels drop noticeably in summer, and Cuban bakeries and sandwich counters keep lunches inexpensive. Against that, a hire car is close to essential, and theme park tickets take a big bite out of a family budget.

Savannah's inns in the historic district charge weekend-destination rates, especially in spring and on festival dates. Its best pleasures cost nothing, though: the squares, Forsyth Park, the riverfront and the cemeteries.

Tampa has more on during an ordinary week. The Straz Center stages touring Broadway musicals, opera, ballet and plays, the Florida Orchestra performs there, and the ornate 1926 Tampa Theatre and the rock venues of Ybor City add films and gigs.

Savannah's programme centres on its festivals, above all the spring Savannah Music Festival, held in historic theatres and churches, plus a jazz festival in Forsyth Park in autumn. If you time a visit for these, there is plenty to see. If you arrive at random, there may be little on.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and both rely on hotel spas, but Savannah is the more restful place to stay. A quiet inn on one of the southern squares, a bench under the oaks and the unhurried pace of the historic district make doing very little easy, at least midweek and away from River Street.

Tampa itself is sprawling, humid and car-bound, so finding calm there means leaving the city for the barrier islands. There, resort spas, long lunches and sunsets over the Gulf set the pace.