Fort Myers or Orlando?

Fort Myers is the beach destination of the two. Fort Myers Beach on Estero Island, the quieter sand of Lovers Key and Bonita Beach, and the shelling shores of Sanibel and Captiva are all within a short drive, and the Gulf there is calm and shallow enough for children and weak swimmers.

Orlando is inland, so the sea means an hour's drive to Cocoa Beach or New Smyrna Beach on the Atlantic, where there is a little surf, or nearly two hours to the clearer Gulf water at Clearwater. Most days, swimming there means a hotel pool or a water park.

Neither city is a reason to travel for food, but Orlando has more range once you leave the tourist corridors. There are Vietnamese and other Asian kitchens along Mills 50, chef-led restaurants in Winter Park and Audubon Park, and Epcot's World Showcase for grazing between rides.

Fort Myers does one thing well: casual Gulf seafood, such as grouper sandwiches and stone crab, eaten on a deck at sunset. The River District adds a few independent restaurants and breweries, and beyond that it is mostly chains along the highways.

Neither city rewards a trip planned around museums. Fort Myers has the more rounded half day in the Edison and Ford Winter Estates, where the inventors' riverside homes, laboratory and gardens sit along palm-lined McGregor Boulevard, and the River District keeps some early twentieth-century brick streets.

Orlando's strongest draw is narrower: the Tiffany collection at the Morse Museum in Winter Park, including the chapel interior made for the 1893 World's Fair. Around it there are small museums in Loch Haven Park and very little historic architecture.

Orlando has more to go out to. On weekends, downtown along Orange Avenue and around Wall Street Plaza fills late with a young crowd swelled by the university, and Ivanhoe Village and Mills 50 have a relaxed gay scene. Disney Springs and CityWalk offer easy themed bars close to the hotels.

Evenings in Fort Myers centre on a sunset drink, at the beach bars by the pier on Estero Island or at a few pubs and rooftop bars downtown. The winter crowd is older and heads home early. The exception is March, when spring break livens up the beach.

Both landscapes are flat and full of water, but Fort Myers has the wildlife closer to hand. You can see spoonbills and herons at the Ding Darling refuge on Sanibel, walk the old-growth cypress boardwalk at Corkscrew Swamp and paddle the mangrove tunnels of the Great Calusa Blueway, which makes it the better base for birdwatchers and kayakers.

Orlando's nature is in its clear springs: Wekiwa for kayaking and Blue Spring for wintering manatees. Airboats run out past alligators on the Kissimmee headwaters. Its best birdwatching, at Merritt Island, is an hour away on the coast.

Orlando has the stronger list of days out, led by the rockets and launch pads of Kennedy Space Center. St Augustine's Spanish fort and old streets, Ybor City in Tampa and the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg each make a full day.

Fort Myers' outings are gentler: well-kept Naples to the south, the island villages of Sanibel, Captiva and Boca Grande, and Sarasota's Ringling museum as the one big cultural day. From either city, every trip needs a car.

Orlando is the clear choice for children. Walt Disney World, Universal, SeaWorld and Legoland make the trip on their own, and hotels are built around families, from suites with bunk rooms to stroller rental. The price is queues, heat and a lot of planning.

Fort Myers suits a quieter kind of family vacation: shallow, calm water, shell hunting on Sanibel, dolphins and manatees, and the Shell Factory for a rainy day. With no big theme park, zoo or aquarium, older children may run out of things to do.

Both cities need a car, but Fort Myers is the simpler place to drive. The River District is pleasant on foot and a trolley runs along Fort Myers Beach, although winter traffic over the bridges to the islands backs up badly.

Orlando spreads further, along Interstate 4 and its toll roads, and its pavements are not built for walking between places. Staying inside Disney or Universal and using their monorail, boats and buses is the one way to manage without a car, but it keeps you inside the resort.

Orlando is a real shopping stop for anyone after brands and outlet prices. It has two large premium outlet centres, the luxury labels of the Mall at Millenia and the tree-lined boutiques of Park Avenue in Winter Park.

Fort Myers has one outlet mall towards Estero and the usual suburban centres. Its more personal shopping is in the gift and shell shops and galleries on Sanibel's Periwinkle Way. Neither city has markets or much local design.

Neither is cheap, and the costs land in different places. In Fort Myers the bill swings with season and location: beachfront rooms on Sanibel are expensive from January to April, while rooms in town and summer rates are far lower, and the beaches and reserves cost little.

Orlando has plenty of fairly priced rooms off-site along International Drive and in Kissimmee, but multi-day park tickets, express passes and meals inside the parks push the total up. Both add a hire car and restaurant tips.

The two are close and follow the same pattern: touring Broadway shows and a resident orchestra, at the Barbara B. Mann Hall in Fort Myers and the Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando. Fort Myers adds a repertory company in a restored 1908 theatre, but its programme largely stops in summer.

Orlando has Orlando Shakespeare Theater and the spring Fringe festival. For many visitors, though, performance there means park stage shows, dinner shows and fireworks, which are polished entertainment rather than a theatre scene.

Neither city has a spa culture, and in both the spas sit inside resort hotels. The difference is the pace. On Sanibel and Captiva the calm comes with the place, with low buildings, bike paths and early nights. In Orlando rest is something you schedule between park days, by a lazy river at a Lake Buena Vista resort or among the lakes of Winter Park.