Charleston or Orlando?

Charleston has the sea close by. Folly Beach has the surf and a pier, Sullivan's Island has quiet dunes beside old forts, and Isle of Palms is a wider resort strand. All are close enough to combine with a morning in the old town, though the water is tidal and greenish rather than clear.

Orlando is inland. Cocoa Beach and New Smyrna Beach are about an hour away and the calmer Gulf sands nearer two. Most day-to-day swimming happens in hotel pools and water parks, which children love but which can't replace days on the beach.

Charleston is the better place to eat. Its Lowcountry cooking, from shrimp and grits to she-crab soup and winter oyster roasts, has Gullah Geechee roots, and upper King Street and the French Quarter have a dense run of serious kitchens you can walk between. What it lacks is cheap international food, and the good tables need booking.

In Orlando most meals are at chains and park counters, and Epcot's World Showcase is the most fun place to graze. The better cooking, such as the Vietnamese kitchens of Mills 50 and the chef-led rooms in Winter Park, is real but spread out, and you usually need to drive to it.

The two cities differ most here. In Charleston the whole peninsula is the sight: Rainbow Row, the Battery and the single houses south of Broad Street. There are also house museums such as the Nathaniel Russell and Aiken-Rhett houses, Fort Sumter out in the harbour, and museums that face the city's part in the slave trade directly.

Orlando has little old architecture. The Morse Museum in Winter Park, with its Tiffany chapel, is outstanding, and Loch Haven Park's small museums fill an afternoon, but someone planning a trip around history will run out of things to see within a day.

Neither city is worth choosing for its nightlife, and they differ in kind. Charleston's evenings centre on upper King Street's rooftop and cocktail bars, with quieter wine bars and old taverns in the French Quarter and a few sandy bars out on Folly Beach. There is very little dancing.

Orlando's nights are split between the themed bars of Disney Springs and CityWalk, which quieten early, and a downtown club scene on Orange Avenue driven by a student crowd, with gay bars around Ivanhoe Village. Orlando is better if you want to dance, Charleston if you want to walk from bar to bar.

Charleston is the better choice for time outdoors, because the wild coast begins at the edge of town. Kayak and paddleboard trips head straight into the spartina marsh creeks, where bottlenose dolphins often come up alongside, and fishing is just as easy to arrange. On land, live oaks hung with Spanish moss shade the quiet trails of the Francis Marion National Forest and the ACE Basin, and Kiawah and Edisto add easy cycling and stretches of wild shore.

Orlando's outdoors are about fresh water: clear springs at Wekiwa for kayaking, manatees gathering at Blue Spring in winter, and airboats over the Kissimmee headwaters past alligators. Merritt Island's lagoons are superb for birds, but they are out towards the coast. Most of this means driving out from a stay built around the parks, so it fits in as the odd morning rather than part of every day.

Both work well as bases for outings by car, but the outings are about different things. Around Charleston they are about history: Ashley River plantations such as Middleton Place and Drayton Hall, McLeod Plantation, Savannah's squares about two hours away, and Beaufort for Gullah culture.

From Orlando the best day out is the Kennedy Space Center, with its launch pads and the shuttle Atlantis. St Augustine's Spanish fort, or Tampa and St Petersburg, each fill a full day. Charleston's trips take its own story further, while Orlando's give you a break from the parks.

No other city is built for children the way Orlando is. Walt Disney World's parks and water parks, Universal for teenagers, SeaWorld and Legoland for the youngest are all within reach, and the resorts lay on character breakfasts and stroller rental. The cost is heat, queues and a lot of planning.

Charleston is calm and easy with children. It has the aquarium, the Children's Museum and the aircraft carrier at Patriots Point, plus gentle beaches. It suits a family that wants a few days of outings rather than a week of rides, and its house tours will test small children's patience.

Charleston's historic peninsula is flat and compact enough to see on foot, with pedicabs and a free shuttle to fill the gaps, although the beaches and plantations need a car or a ride.

Orlando is spread out along Interstate 4 and is barely walkable, so a car is close to essential. The exception is staying inside Disney or Universal, whose monorail, boats and gondolas keep a family moving between hotel and park.

The shopping is about equally good in both, but very different in kind. Charleston is for browsing. King Street runs from antiques at its lower end, past brand stores, to independent boutiques, and the City Market has Gullah sweetgrass baskets woven on the spot.

Orlando is for buying brands. The premium outlets on International Drive and Vineland Avenue and the luxury labels at the Mall at Millenia draw visitors who arrive with a list, and Park Avenue in Winter Park offers gentler browsing. Choose Charleston for crafts and character, Orlando for brand names.

Neither city is cheap, but Orlando is easier to keep within a budget. Its huge supply of hotels and self-catering condos on International Drive and in Kissimmee keeps rooms fairly priced. The big costs are park tickets, express passes and parking, and you can at least choose how many of those to take on.

Charleston's inns on the peninsula charge big-city rates, more so on spring and autumn weekends, and its well-known restaurants do the same. Walking the old streets and going to the beaches costs nothing, and Mount Pleasant is a cheaper place to sleep if you don't mind driving in every day.

For most of the year both cities have modest stages. Charleston has one big event, Spoleto Festival USA each late spring, which fills the city with opera, dance and jazz. The rest of the year there is the Dock Street Theatre, the Gaillard Center and the distinctive Gullah storytelling.

Orlando's Dr. Phillips Center brings in touring Broadway shows and the Philharmonic, and the Orlando Fringe fills the spring. Most visitors also see the resorts' polished stage shows and fireworks, which are fun but no substitute for a theatre or live-music scene.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, so the difference is in the pace. Charleston slows you down without trying, with shaded gardens, quiet church courtyards and evenings at White Point Garden, and there are resort spas on Kiawah Island.

Orlando's resorts have full spas and lazy rivers, but a stay there is built around early starts and miles of walking, so a spa visit is about recovering between park days. Winter Park is the city's calm corner.