Tampa or West Palm Beach?

West Palm Beach has the better beach life. The Atlantic is only a short drive or bike ride over the lagoon bridges, to Midtown Beach and Phipps Ocean Park on Palm Beach or to the broader sands of Singer Island and Juno. Peanut Island adds sheltered lagoon swimming and snorkelling, and the warm sea keeps swimming going through the winter.

Tampa's own shore is mostly seawall. Its real beaches, Clearwater, St Pete Beach, Pass-a-Grille and Fort De Soto, lie 35 to 60 minutes away across the bay. They are lovely when you get there, with fine white sand and a gentle Gulf, but each visit is a day out rather than part of the daily routine.

The two are close for eating out, but they differ in character. Tampa has a real food story from its Ybor City immigrants: the Cuban sandwich with Genoa salami, old bakeries, deviled crab croquettes and the century-old Columbia Restaurant. Beyond that heritage it is a solid modern American mix.

West Palm Beach is more about comfort than identity. Expect waterfront terraces on Clematis Street, plainly grilled grouper, snapper and stone crab, and clubby lunches on Palm Beach, with Haitian and Caribbean counters further from the centre. Both coasts serve stone crab and grouper, but only Tampa has a dish to call its own.

Each city has two or three days of sightseeing, but the sights are of different kinds. Tampa's heritage is industrial and immigrant: the brick cigar factories and Latin social clubs of Ybor City, and Henry Plant's minareted railway hotel.

West Palm Beach leans towards art and Gilded Age wealth. The Norton Museum has a collection strong enough to plan a morning around, Flagler's marble Whitehall tells the story of the railway, and the Mediterranean Revival villas of Palm Beach make a fine afternoon's walk. Art lovers staying in Tampa usually cross to St Petersburg instead.

Tampa gives you much more choice after dark. Seventh Avenue in Ybor City is loud and young, with dance clubs open late, while SoHo offers polished cocktail patios and the Riverwalk has rooftops and a serious craft beer scene. In winter the Gasparilla pirate invasion fills the bayfront.

In West Palm Beach, going out comes down to a few blocks of Clematis Street and Rosemary Square, busy at weekends but quiet on weeknights and in summer. Evenings on Palm Beach end early in hotel bars, and anyone who wants real clubbing heads to Miami.

The outdoors is similar in scale here, but the water is different. Tampa's best days are freshwater ones: kayaking the cypress swamp of Hillsborough River State Park, swimming in the clear springs around Crystal River and Weeki Wachee, and spotting alligators at Myakka.

West Palm Beach looks out to sea. Reefs and drift dives lie a short boat ride offshore, the shallows under the Blue Heron Bridge are a celebrated snorkel, and turtles nest at Juno and Jupiter. Both places have wintering manatees, at Apollo Beach and at Manatee Lagoon respectively.

Both offer a good spread of outings, though neither has anything of great age. From Tampa the variety lies inland and around the bay, nearly all by car: the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg, the Greek sponge docks of Tarpon Springs, the Ringling estate in Sarasota and Frank Lloyd Wright's campus at Lakeland.

West Palm Beach has one big day out, Miami, an hour away by fast train, with South Beach, Little Havana and Wynwood. The rest are mostly coastal towns, such as Delray Beach with its Japanese gardens and pink-walled Boca Raton.

Tampa is the stronger base with children. Busch Gardens pairs roller coasters with an animal park, its water park is next door, and ZooTampa, the Florida Aquarium and the Glazer Children's Museum fill the gaps. Legoland and Orlando are close enough for a long day.

West Palm Beach suits a gentler beach vacation, with Peanut Island's calm lagoon, guarded beaches and the drive-through Lion Country Safari. It has no big theme park, though, and Orlando is a long way off. In both places nearly everything needs a car.

Neither works well without a car, but West Palm Beach is easier. Its flat downtown is easy to walk, a free trolley links the waterfront, Clematis Street and Rosemary Square, and you can cycle over the bridges to Palm Beach. Fast trains run south to Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

Tampa's streetcar covers only downtown, the Channel District and Ybor. The beaches, Busch Gardens and every day trip mean driving, often through rush-hour traffic on the bridges.

West Palm Beach is the place to shop. Worth Avenue's luxury fashion and jewellery houses line courtyards and Mediterranean-style passages, and the consignment shops sell designer clothes from the island's wardrobes. Antique Row on South Dixie Highway adds an afternoon of browsing furniture and decorative pieces.

Tampa is mostly malls, plus the small open-air Hyde Park Village. What it has that West Palm lacks is a living craft: cigars still rolled by hand in Ybor City.

Neither is cheap, but Tampa is easier on the wallet. Its hotels are ordinary American mid-range, and Cuban bakeries and sandwich counters keep lunch affordable. For families the big extra cost is theme park tickets.

West Palm Beach costs more, above all from December to April, when Palm Beach rooms are among the dearest on the coast and restaurants are priced for a wealthy winter crowd. Summer brings lower rates in both cities, and in both a hire car adds to the bill.

The two are evenly matched, each built around one large arts centre with touring Broadway shows and a resident opera company: the Straz in Tampa and the Kravis in West Palm. Tampa adds the Florida Orchestra, the ornate 1926 Tampa Theatre and the rock and indie rooms of Ybor City, which run all year.

West Palm's extra strength is drama, with Palm Beach Dramaworks staging serious plays and the Society of the Four Arts hosting concerts and lectures. Its calendar is crowded from late autumn to spring and thin in summer.

West Palm Beach is the more restful stay. Large oceanfront resort spas line Palm Beach and the coast, and the quiet, manicured island and the lagoon promenades suit slow mornings and evening strolls.

Tampa itself is sprawling, car-bound and humid. Its calm lies across the bay on the Gulf islands, so anyone after a restorative break there usually stays out on the barrier islands rather than in the city.