Boca Raton or New Orleans?

Boca Raton wins this easily. Its beach parks sit on the barrier island with dunes, sea grape and little high-rise building, and Red Reef Park lets you snorkel a reef straight from the sand. The Atlantic is warm enough to swim in all year, and the sands are calm and family-minded rather than social.

New Orleans faces a lake and a working river, and you cannot swim in either. The nearest sand is on the Mississippi coast more than an hour away, with shallow, murky water, so most visitors make do with a hotel pool.

Here the order reverses sharply. New Orleans has a cuisine entirely its own: Creole and Cajun dishes from gumbo to étouffée, French Quarter dining rooms more than a century old, po'boy shops in Mid-City, beignets by Jackson Square and cocktails like the Sazerac that were invented in the city.

Boca Raton eats well but predictably, with steakhouses, sushi and brunch around Mizner Park. Its most local touches are stone crab, Key lime pie and a good deli and bagel tradition. Anyone hungry for more variety ends up driving to Delray Beach or Miami.

New Orleans is the city to see. The French Quarter is a rare intact colonial town of iron balconies and courtyards, centred on St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo. The Garden District mansions, the above-ground tombs and the National WWII Museum fill several more days.

Boca Raton's history begins with Addison Mizner's Mediterranean Revival resort of the 1920s, which you can see in the Old Town Hall and the pink-towered hotel. Add the art museum and the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, and a sightseeing visit is soon done.

This is the gap travellers will feel most. New Orleans has no closing time and lets you carry drinks along the street. The night runs from Bourbon Street's neon to the music bars of Frenchmen Street and the corner dives of the Bywater, and Carnival turns it all into one long party.

A night out in Boca Raton means dinner and a cocktail in Mizner Park, with most of the city asleep before midnight. The nearest later scene is Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, and for clubs you have to drive to Fort Lauderdale or Miami.

Both cities are flat, and the outdoors in both means water. Boca Raton has the edge because its water includes the sea: snorkelling and diving on the nearshore reef, Gulf Stream fishing charters, kayaking through Intracoastal mangroves and turtle walks at Gumbo Limbo. Winter there is good for cycling along the coast road.

New Orleans has the swamps instead. Boat and kayak trips run through cypress bayous, there are boardwalks at Barataria, and City Park's live oaks are in town. Its summer is harder to bear outdoors, so spring and late autumn are the times to go.

Boca Raton has slightly more within easy reach. Palm Beach's Flagler Museum and Worth Avenue are to the north and Fort Lauderdale's canals to the south. Miami is about an hour away by train, so you can go car-free. The catch is that it is all the same coastal strip.

From New Orleans the outings are more varied in subject but further apart. The River Road plantations, with the Whitney's account of slavery, Baton Rouge's capitol and the Cajun towns around Lafayette each feel quite unlike the city you left.

Boca Raton is a little easier with children. It is safe and orderly, with lifeguarded beaches, a gentle first snorkel at Red Reef, the turtle tanks at Gumbo Limbo and Sugar Sand Park, though you will be in the car a lot.

New Orleans has the stronger single attractions: Audubon Zoo, the riverfront aquarium, the City Park carousel and children's museum, streetcars and parade beads. But you need to plan around the summer heat and stay away from Bourbon Street and some areas after dark.

New Orleans is much easier without a car. The French Quarter, the Marigny and the Warehouse District can all be walked, and the St. Charles streetcar carries you under the oaks to Uptown, even if it is slow and the buses are thin.

Boca Raton is spread along wide multi-lane roads with weak buses, so most visitors hire a car or use ride-hailing. Its one real strength is the train: Tri-Rail and Brightline connect it to Miami and West Palm Beach.

The two are evenly matched, but they offer opposite things. Boca Raton is about labels: its enclosed mall is one of Florida's most upscale, with designer brands, and the open-air streets of Mizner Park are lined with boutiques.

New Orleans is about character. You will find antique dealers and galleries on Royal Street, miles of independent and vintage shops on Magazine Street, hot sauces and pralines at the French Market and Mardi Gras masks, though very little in the way of designer fashion.

New Orleans is the cheaper of the two, though neither is a bargain. Po'boys, neighbourhood bars, the streetcar and free street music keep daily costs down, and rooms just outside the Quarter help. Festival weekends and Mardi Gras push hotel rates up.

Boca Raton is costly in winter, with resort rooms and restaurants priced for a wealthy crowd. Hiring a car and paying to park at the beaches add to the bill. The cheaper summer rates come with the storm season.

For live music there is no contest. New Orleans has jazz, brass bands, zydeco and blues in the clubs along Frenchmen Street and the old French Quarter jazz hall, plus Sunday second-line parades and Jazz Fest in spring. Its formal stage is modest.

Boca Raton offers a winter season of open-air concerts at the Mizner Park Amphitheater, musicals, ballet and conservatory recitals. For anything bigger, people go to the Kravis Center or Miami.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, but Boca Raton suits rest better. Its large resorts have full spas and pools, and the quiet, well-kept town makes early nights easy.

New Orleans offers a slow pace rather than treatments: mornings in a courtyard guesthouse and lazy afternoons in City Park. The French Quarter after dark works against rest.