Key West or New Orleans?

Key West is the only one of the two where swimming is part of the trip. Its beaches are small and the shore at Fort Zachary Taylor is coral rubble, but the water is clear, calm and warm through the year, and Bahia Honda's proper sandy beach is about an hour up the highway.

New Orleans has a lake and a working river, neither of them for bathing. The nearest sand is on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, well over an hour's drive, where the water is shallow and murky, so most visitors swim only in a hotel pool.

New Orleans is one of the great places in America to eat, and Key West is a pleasant but narrow one. The island does seafood and Cuban food well: pink shrimp, stone crab, conch fritters, Key lime pie and café con leche from takeaway windows, mostly in casual dockside shacks.

New Orleans has a whole cuisine of its own, Creole and Cajun, from century-old French Quarter dining rooms to po'boy shops in Mid-City, with seasonal crawfish and oysters, Vietnamese cooking in the suburbs and a cocktail tradition that gave the world the Sazerac. A food-led trip belongs here.

Both cities are best seen on foot, but New Orleans has much more to show. Key West's Old Town of conch cottages and Victorian verandas is charming, and the Hemingway Home, the Truman Little White House and the shipwreck collections fill about two days.

New Orleans adds a far more complete historic core in the French Quarter, with Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo, plus the mansions of the Garden District, the above-ground tombs of its old cemeteries and the large National WWII Museum. Its Creole and African American heritage gives the visit real depth.

Both are drinking towns where you carry a glass down the street, and neither is about clubs. Key West's version is Duval Street after sunset at Mallory Square: open-sided bars, rooftop decks and a long-established gay scene, loud and fun but limited in range.

New Orleans takes the same idea much further. There is no legal closing time, Bourbon Street runs until dawn, and the better nights are spent on Frenchmen Street, in Bywater dives and in corner bars across the neighbourhoods, with serious cocktail bars as well. Carnival season makes it one long party.

Key West's outdoors is the sea, and it is the stronger of the two. The Florida Reef lies a few kilometres offshore for snorkelling and diving, the mangrove flats suit kayaking and fishing for tarpon and bonefish, and the Dry Tortugas offer remote clear water and birdwatching.

New Orleans looks inland to cypress swamps and bayous, with alligator-spotting boat tours and the boardwalks of the Barataria Preserve within an hour, and City Park's live oaks and lagoons in town. It is interesting landscape, but summer heat shuts much of it down.

New Orleans has more within a day's reach. The River Road plantations, including Oak Alley and the sobering Whitney, are about an hour away, with Baton Rouge, the Gulf towns of Bay St. Louis and Ocean Springs, and the Cajun dance halls of Lafayette as further options.

Key West sits at the end of the road. Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas is a superb day out by ferry, and the drive over the Seven Mile Bridge to Marathon has its moments, but beyond that the choices are few and the mainland is too far.

New Orleans has more laid on for children. Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas, the carousel, storybook garden and children's museum in City Park, streetcar rides and paddle steamers fill several days, and Mardi Gras parades along St. Charles Avenue are fun for families.

Key West works for children mainly through the water: calm shallows at Fort Zachary Taylor, glass-bottom boats and the Dry Tortugas ferry, plus a small aquarium and butterfly conservatory. Both have a rowdy drinking street to avoid at night, and both need care in the summer heat.

Key West is the easier of the two simply because it is tiny and flat. Almost everything is a short walk or bike ride from Duval Street, and a car is more trouble than it is worth, though reaching the rest of the Keys needs wheels.

New Orleans keeps its sights in a walkable band along the river and has the charm of its historic streetcars, but they are slow, buses are thin, and ride-hailing fills the gaps, particularly at night when some stretches between neighbourhoods are best not walked.

New Orleans gives shoppers far more to do. Royal Street's antique dealers and galleries, the miles of independent boutiques and vintage shops on Magazine Street, and Carnival masks and hot sauces from the French Market make browsing worthwhile.

Key West is mostly T-shirts and Key lime souvenirs on Duval, with Old Town art galleries, hand-rolled cigars and harbour sponge shops as the more interesting finds. It is an evening stroll rather than a shopping trip.

Neither is a bargain, but New Orleans is clearly easier on the wallet. Key West's limited land keeps rooms expensive all year and even more so in winter, and boat trips, diving and the Dry Tortugas ferry add up fast.

In New Orleans, hotels in the Quarter are the main cost, while po'boys, neighbourhood bars, the streetcar and free street music keep the days reasonable. Staying along the streetcar lines saves more, and in both cities the hot summer months are the cheapest time to come.

This is where New Orleans pulls furthest ahead. As the birthplace of jazz it has brass bands, blues, funk and zydeco every night on Frenchmen Street and in the old French Quarter jazz hall, second-line parades on Sundays and Jazz Fest in spring, though formal theatre and opera are modest.

Key West's music is cover bands and singer-songwriters in the Duval bars, with drag cabaret and the jugglers and street acts of Mallory Square at sunset as its own distinctive shows. The Tennessee Williams Theatre and a winter orchestra make up the formal side.

Neither has a bathing or spa tradition, but Key West is the more restful of the two. Small guesthouses built around pools and gardens, quiet residential lanes and the daily pause for sunset make slowing down easy, as long as you stay away from Duval.

New Orleans can be unhurried too, with courtyard mornings and slow rides along St. Charles Avenue, but the city's pull is toward late nights and rich food, and its spas are little more than hotel day spas.