Gulf Shores or Orlando?

This is the biggest gap between the two. In Gulf Shores you step out of the condo onto miles of fine white quartz sand that runs from Fort Morgan to the Florida line, with quieter dune-backed stretches in Gulf State Park. On calm summer days the water is clear and green. Rip currents are the main hazard to keep in mind.

Orlando is inland. Cocoa Beach and New Smyrna Beach are good Atlantic strands, but they are about an hour away, and the calmer Gulf water at Clearwater is about two hours away. Most of the swimming on an Orlando trip happens in hotel pools and water parks.

Gulf Shores does one thing well: casual Gulf seafood such as Royal Red shrimp, chargrilled oysters, grouper and gumbo, eaten at open-air shacks with a view of the water. Many visitors buy shrimp at the seafood markets and cook it in the condo kitchen.

Orlando has more range if you leave the tourist corridors. You'll find Vietnamese kitchens in Mills 50, chef-led restaurants and farmers' markets in Winter Park and Audubon Park, and steak rooms on Sand Lake Road, and Epcot's World Showcase is fun to graze through. In both cities you will drive to most meals.

Neither is a place to plan around museums, but Orlando has a little more to fill a rainy afternoon. The highlight is the Morse Museum in Winter Park, with its Tiffany glass and the chapel from the 1893 World's Fair, and Loch Haven Park has two modest art museums. Gulf Shores has Fort Morgan, the brick star fort tied to the Battle of Mobile Bay, which is worth a morning, and a small local history museum. After that you need a day trip.

Going out in Gulf Shores means beach-bar decks with sand underfoot and frozen drinks. The famous roadhouse on the state line at Perdido Key stays loud late, but most of the resort is asleep early and there are no clubs.

Orlando gives you more choice. Downtown on Orange Avenue and around Wall Street Plaza, a university crowd fills bars and clubs at weekends, and Ivanhoe Village and Mills 50 have a relaxed gay scene. Disney Springs and CityWalk offer easier themed drinking near the hotels.

Both landscapes are flat and watery, and the difference is in the kind of water. Gulf Shores sits on a barrier island with the open Gulf and its back bays. You can go deep-sea fishing from Orange Beach, see dolphins and paddle the bayous, and there are maritime-forest bike trails in Gulf State Park, Bon Secour's dune trails, and the Mobile-Tensaw Delta swamp inland. That gives it a slight edge.

Orlando's outdoors is freshwater. You can kayak the clear springs at Wekiwa, see manatees at Blue Spring in winter, and take an airboat past alligators, and the birding at Merritt Island is excellent, though it lies towards the coast.

Orlando has the better-known outings. The Kennedy Space Center, with the Saturn V and Atlantis, is about an hour away, and Spanish St Augustine and the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg each make a full day out.

From Gulf Shores the outings are gentler and closer. Mobile has ironwork balconies and the USS Alabama, Fairhope is a pretty bayside town, and Pensacola has its naval aviation museum. You can also take the car ferry from Fort Morgan to Dauphin Island. From either base, you'll need a car.

Gulf Shores is built for families, but on a small scale: beachfront condos with pools, a water park, a hands-on zoo, the Ferris wheel in Orange Beach and the theme park in Foley. It suits a slow week with toddlers on the sand.

Orlando is in another league. Walt Disney World's four parks, Universal's film worlds for teenagers, SeaWorld and Legoland mean a week of different days, with resorts designed around stroller rental and bunk-room suites. The price of all that is the queues, the heat and the planning.

Both are car country, but Gulf Shores is a little easier to deal with. It is one long beach road, you can walk within your own stretch of sand and its bars, and Gulf State Park's trails work well by bike. Summer weekend traffic over the bridges is the main nuisance.

Orlando spreads its parks, hotels and downtown across miles of Interstate 4 and toll roads that are no good for walking. The exception is staying on-site, where Disney's monorail, boats and gondolas or Universal's water taxis let a family do without a car.

Orlando is a real shopping destination for brand hunters. It has premium outlets on International Drive and Vineland Avenue, luxury labels at the Mall at Millenia, and the boutiques of Park Avenue in Winter Park.

Gulf Shores shopping is practical: beachwear and souvenir emporiums, fishing shops, and the Foley outlet mall for a rainy afternoon. Neither city has much in the way of independent design or crafts.

Gulf Shores comes out slightly cheaper, mainly because its main attraction, the beach and the state park trails, is free. Out of season the condo rentals fall sharply, and a condo kitchen keeps food costs down. June and July weekends are the expensive time.

Orlando's rooms along International Drive and in Kissimmee are fairly priced. The cost comes from park tickets over several days, express passes, parking and meals inside the parks, and on-site resorts add more on top.

Orlando has an actual stage. The Dr. Phillips Center brings touring Broadway shows and the Orlando Philharmonic, Orlando Shakespeare Theater plays in Loch Haven Park, and the long-running Fringe fills the spring. The parks add polished stage shows and fireworks on top.

In Gulf Shores, live music means bands on beach-bar stages and touring country and rock acts at the Orange Beach amphitheatre in the warmer months. The highlight is the November songwriters' festival at the state-line roadhouse.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and they are about level for relaxation. The difference is in how you rest. In Gulf Shores the rest comes from the pace itself: quiet, early nights and sunsets from the balcony outside summer weekends, with only a few spas. Orlando's days in the parks are tiring, but its resorts have full spas and lazy rivers for a recovery day, and Winter Park's lakes offer calm.