St. Pete Beach or Tampa?

This is the biggest gap between the two, and it runs in St. Pete Beach's favour. There the beach is the town: one continuous strip of pale, fine sand along shallow Gulf water, with the relaxed, low-rise stretch at Pass-a-Grille, quieter Upham Beach and the wild sands of Fort De Soto and Shell Key just south.

Tampa reaches exactly the same Gulf beaches, St. Pete Beach among them, but only as outings of 35 to 60 minutes by car, since its own bay shore is mostly seawall. The sand and water are just as good once you arrive; what you lose is the easy rhythm of walking down to swim before breakfast.

Tampa eats better and with more personality. Its cooking grew out of the Cuban, Spanish and Sicilian cigar workers of Ybor City, so you get the pressed Cuban sandwich with salami, deviled crab croquettes, café con leche at old bakeries and a century-old tiled Spanish dining room, plus food halls and casual places in Seminole Heights and South Tampa.

St. Pete Beach is about eating by the water rather than eating well: grouper sandwiches, fried shrimp and smoked fish spread at shacks and beach bars, with sunset dinners on a deck as the high point. Beyond Pass-a-Grille and Corey Avenue, Gulf Boulevard leans on chains and resort restaurants.

Tampa has a modest but genuine heritage to explore over two or three days: the brick factories, iron balconies and Latin social clubs of Ybor City with its museum state park, Henry Plant's minareted 1891 railway hotel housing a museum, and the art and history museums on the river.

St. Pete Beach offers little beyond the pink 1920s Mediterranean Revival hotel that dominates its skyline, Pass-a-Grille's old cottages and small history museum, and the old gun batteries at Fort De Soto. From either base, the stronger art collections, including the Dalí Museum, are in St. Petersburg.

Tampa has a proper night out, St. Pete Beach mostly has a sunset. In Tampa, Seventh Avenue in Ybor City runs loud and late with dance clubs and a young weekend crowd, SoHo offers cocktail bars and patios, and the Riverwalk adds rooftops and craft beer taprooms. The winter Gasparilla pirate festival is one of Florida's biggest street parties.

On St. Pete Beach the evening peaks at the tiki decks and beach bars of Gulf Boulevard and Pass-a-Grille, often with a cover band, and quietens soon after dark. There is no club scene, so night owls end up driving to downtown St. Petersburg.

Both sit in the same flat, watery landscape, so the outdoors comes out about even and is about paddling and wildlife rather than views. St. Pete Beach keeps it on the coast: kayak trails through the mangroves at Fort De Soto and Shell Key, dolphins from the boats, pelicans and roseate spoonbills on the flats, and fishing off the piers.

Tampa reaches further inland and into fresh water: cypress swamp paddling in Hillsborough River State Park, wintering manatees near Apollo Beach, the clear spring-fed rivers around Crystal River and Weeki Wachee, and alligators at Myakka. In both, summer heat pushes everything into the early morning.

The two share most of the same outings, so the difference is mainly in direction. From St. Pete Beach the easy wins are St. Petersburg half an hour away and, across the Sunshine Skyway, Sarasota's Ringling estate and the old-Florida beach towns of Anna Maria Island, with Tampa's Ybor City under an hour off.

From Tampa the inland options come closer: Lakeland's Frank Lloyd Wright campus and Bok Tower Gardens, plus the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs and Scottish-founded Dunedin to the north. Either way, these are pleasant, varied days by car rather than places worth the journey on their own.

Both work well with children, Tampa slightly better for the range of attractions on its doorstep. Busch Gardens with its water park, ZooTampa's manatees, the Florida Aquarium and the Glazer Children's Museum are all close, and the calm Gulf beaches are a drive away.

St. Pete Beach turns that around: the soft sand and shallow, gentle water are right outside hotels with pools, and dolphin boats and shelling at Shell Key fill the gaps, but the aquariums and theme parks mean driving inland. In both, the summer heat and storms push the busy part of the day to the morning.

Neither works well without a car, but St. Pete Beach is the easier of the two once you are there. It is a single narrow strip with a beach trolley along Gulf Boulevard, and Pass-a-Grille and Corey Avenue are pleasant to walk or cycle, so a beach-focused stay needs little driving.

Tampa only works on foot in its core, where the heritage streetcar links downtown, the Channel District and Ybor City and the Riverwalk makes a good walk. Everything else, from the beaches to Busch Gardens, means a rental car or ride-hailing and time in bridge and interstate traffic.

Shopping on St. Pete Beach is beach shopping: swimwear, beach gear and souvenirs along Gulf Boulevard, plus a few independent boutiques and galleries on Corey Avenue and small art and craft shops in Pass-a-Grille. It covers whatever you forgot to pack. For clothes, department stores or a proper afternoon of browsing, you need to drive inland.

Tampa is often where that drive ends, and it offers much more choice, though mostly of the American mall kind. An upscale mall near the airport holds the luxury and department-store brands, and Hyde Park Village in South Tampa is a small open-air district of boutiques. The one thing you can only really buy here is a cigar rolled by hand in one of Ybor City's small shops.

Neither is cheap, but Tampa goes a little further. Its hotels away from the coast cost less than beachfront rooms, and Cuban bakeries and sandwich counters keep lunches modest, though a car is close to essential and theme park tickets weigh on a family budget.

St. Pete Beach charges a premium for sleeping by the sand, especially from February to April, and sit-down meals come at full resort prices. The way to save is an older motel a block back from the beach and a late-summer stay, with the beaches themselves free apart from parking.

Tampa is where the stage shows are. The Straz Center on the river hosts touring Broadway musicals, the resident opera, ballet and plays, the Florida Orchestra performs there, and the ornate 1926 Tampa Theatre puts on films and concerts beneath its starry ceiling. Smaller rock and indie gigs gather in Ybor City.

On St. Pete Beach, live performance means a cover band or acoustic set at a beach bar. A concert or show means a drive to St. Petersburg or to that same Straz Center, about 45 minutes away.

Neither has a bathing tradition, so the difference lies in the pace. St. Pete Beach is the more restful base, with mornings on the sand, long afternoons and a sunset everyone stops for, and Pass-a-Grille especially unhurried outside the spring-break weeks. Resort spas and small day spas along Gulf Boulevard cover the treatments.

Tampa has some substantial hotel spas, but the city itself is sprawling, humid and car-bound. Visitors after real rest tend to book on the islands, which means places like St. Pete Beach.