Atlanta or Orlando?

Neither city is on the sea, but Orlando is much closer to it. Cocoa Beach and New Smyrna Beach, wide Atlantic beaches with soft sand and gentle surf, are about an hour's drive away, and the calmer Gulf water at Clearwater is roughly two hours off, so a day on the coast fits easily into a week.

From Atlanta, both the Atlantic and the Gulf are four to five hours away, too far to get there and back in a day. Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona have sandy swimming areas and warm water in summer, but that is a local lake day, and Atlanta has nothing like Orlando's big water parks.

Atlanta eats far better. It is one of the best places for Southern cooking, from fried chicken and shrimp and grits in meat-and-three cafeterias to west-side soul food and smoked barbecue. Buford Highway adds a long run of Korean, Vietnamese and Ethiopian kitchens that cook for their own communities.

Orlando has some good streets of its own, notably the Vietnamese places of Mills 50 and the chef-led restaurants of Winter Park. Still, most visitors eat at chains, park counters and themed restaurants, and Florida has no cooking tradition to match the South's. In both cities the best meals mean a drive.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Atlanta lost most of its old townscape in 1864, but its civil rights heritage matters to the whole country. King's birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the High Museum and the Carter Presidential Library add up to two or three full days.

Orlando grew out of citrus groves and theme parks, and it has one outstanding sight: the Tiffany collection at the Morse Museum in Winter Park. A handful of smaller museums in Loch Haven Park fill an afternoon, and the city's space heritage is out on the coast.

Atlanta has the stronger night out. Its club scene, rooted in Southern hip-hop and trap, has a national reputation, and there are dive bars along Edgewood Avenue, the South's major LGBTQ district in Midtown and dressy lounges in Buckhead. The areas are far apart, though, so most nights you pick one and stay there.

In Orlando, most visitors' evenings are spent in the themed bars of Disney Springs and CityWalk, which wind down early. Downtown along Orange Avenue, a late, student-heavy scene keeps going at weekends, for anyone with energy left after a day in the parks.

Atlanta has more variety, and it has hills. Stone Mountain's granite dome and the battlefield trails of Kennesaw Mountain are within half an hour, the Chattahoochee runs past wooded bluffs, and the Blue Ridge foothills, Amicalola Falls and the southern end of the Appalachian Trail are about two hours north.

Orlando's outdoors is flat and full of water. You can kayak the clear springs at Wekiwa, see manatees at Blue Spring in winter, take an airboat past alligators or watch birds at Merritt Island. It is gentler country, made for paddling and wildlife rather than climbing.

Orlando has the more memorable outings. Kennedy Space Center, with the Saturn V and the shuttle Atlantis, is about an hour away. The Spanish fort and old streets of St Augustine, Tampa's Ybor City and the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg each make a full day.

Atlanta's options are pleasant rather than famous: the college town of Athens, Dahlonega with its gold-rush history among the vineyards, the antebellum houses of Madison, and Chattanooga's aquarium and Lookout Mountain about two hours north. Savannah is too far for a day out. You need a car for nearly all of these trips, from either city.

Atlanta is a good city for families. There are whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium, gorillas at Zoo Atlanta, dinosaurs at Fernbank and shows at the Center for Puppetry Arts, plus Six Flags on the edge of town, enough for several days.

Orlando is in a different class. Disney World's four theme parks and two water parks, Universal for older children and teenagers, SeaWorld and Legoland can fill a week or two, and the resorts are designed so that families hardly have to think about getting around. The heat and the queues are the price.

Neither city is easy without a car, but Atlanta at least has one useful line. MARTA rail runs from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead, so a visitor staying along it can reach the main sights, and the BeltLine's Eastside Trail links several neighbourhoods on foot.

Outside the resorts, Orlando has almost nothing like it. Parks, hotels and downtown are spread along Interstate 4, and the buses are of little use to visitors. Families staying inside Disney or Universal can rely on monorails, boats and shuttles, but everyone else drives.

Orlando is better for a shopping trip. It has two big premium outlet centres, on International Drive and Vineland Avenue, plus the luxury labels of the Mall at Millenia, and many international visitors go home with a full suitcase. Park Avenue in Winter Park adds tree-lined boutiques.

Atlanta's best shopping is in Buckhead, with two facing malls on Peachtree Road and designer boutiques nearby, and Little Five Points has the vintage clothing and record shops that Orlando lacks. Neither city has local crafts or a market quarter.

Overall costs are much the same, and in both cities hotels away from the expensive districts are fair value for the United States. The difference is where the money goes. In Atlanta it is car hire, parking and tips, offset by cheap Southern cooking, the Buford Highway restaurants and the free civil rights sites.

In Orlando the bill is driven by multi-day park tickets, express queue passes and meals inside the parks. Self-catering condos in Kissimmee and off-site hotels on International Drive keep the cost of staying down.

Atlanta has the deeper scene. There is a symphony orchestra known for its choral recordings, new work at the Alliance Theatre, full opera and ballet seasons, and touring Broadway shows at the Fox Theatre. As a centre of hip-hop, R&B and gospel, the city also draws major tours, and mid-sized halls such as the Tabernacle fill the gap below the arenas.

Orlando's Dr. Phillips Center hosts touring Broadway shows and the Philharmonic, and its spring Fringe is one of the longest-running in the country. Most visitors, though, see live performance as park stage shows, dinner shows and fireworks.

Neither city is somewhere to go for rest, and each offers a different kind of break. In Atlanta it means a trip out to the Korean bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs: half a day of soaking and dozing among local families. It suits an adult visitor who is curious about the city's immigrant communities, and it pairs well with dinner on Buford Highway. Otherwise the calm is limited to the leafy residential streets, because the sprawl and the summer humidity work against it.

In Orlando, the rest comes with the hotel. At the big resorts around Lake Buena Vista, a massage or an afternoon on a lazy river is a short walk from your room. That is exactly what parents need between park days, though it keeps you inside the resort rather than showing you anything local. Couples who want real quiet will do better in lakeside Winter Park.