Myrtle Beach or Orlando?

This is where the two differ most. Myrtle Beach sits on the Grand Strand, so wide, flat sand and gentle, shallow water are a short walk from most hotels. The quieter, dune-backed stretches at Surfside and Garden City are a short drive south.

Orlando is inland. Cocoa Beach and New Smyrna Beach are fine Atlantic strands, and the clearer Gulf water at Clearwater is further off, but each is at least an hour's drive. In practice most day-to-day swimming happens in hotel pools and water parks.

Neither is a food destination, but Orlando has more range. The Vietnamese kitchens of Mills 50, the chef-led restaurants of Winter Park and Audubon Park and the country pavilions of Epcot's World Showcase give a curious eater several evenings of variety.

Myrtle Beach is narrower, with buffets, pancake houses and fried fish along the strip. Its strength is local seafood, which is worth the short drive to the waterfront at Murrells Inlet or over the state line for lightly battered Calabash-style shrimp.

Both are twentieth-century resorts with little history on show, and either can be covered in a day. The difference is in kind. Myrtle Beach's best is outdoors: sculpture among the live oaks at Brookgreen Gardens and the Moorish-style Atalaya next door. Orlando's best is indoors: the Morse Museum's Tiffany collection in Winter Park, which includes the chapel he made for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

The two are on a similar scale, but the nights out are different. Myrtle Beach offers a seasonal beach-resort night of boardwalk bars, rooftop decks and late dance clubs, with the shag still danced on North Myrtle Beach's Main Street. Some spring-break weeks get rowdy, and off-season it all quietens early.

Orlando is split. The themed bars of Disney Springs and CityWalk are safe and close early, while downtown along Orange Avenue a student and local crowd keeps going late at weekends. There is also a relaxed gay scene in Ivanhoe Village and Mills 50.

Both are on flat ground with no hills to climb, and in summer both push outdoor plans to the early morning. Myrtle Beach's nature is coastal: salt marsh and dunes, herons and alligators at Huntington Beach State Park, kayaking in the Waccamaw cypress swamps and dozens of golf courses.

Orlando's nature is mostly freshwater. There are clear springs for paddling at Wekiwa, manatees at Blue Spring in winter, airboats on the Kissimmee headwaters and long paved rail trails for cycling.

Orlando has the stronger list. The Kennedy Space Center is about an hour away, and St Augustine's Spanish fort, Tampa's Ybor City and the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg each make a full day out.

From Myrtle Beach the clear highlight is Charleston, a long but rewarding drive of about two hours south. Georgetown's rice-culture museum and the riverfront at Wilmington are closer alternatives. In both places, every outing needs a car.

Myrtle Beach gives children a simpler, slower week built around the sea: gentle surf on wide sand, resort lazy rivers, an aquarium, a seaside amusement park with an old wooden roller coaster and mini-golf themed with volcanoes and pirate ships. It works best for younger children, though summer traffic and the rowdier spring-break weeks need planning around.

Orlando is in another league, built more completely around children than anywhere else. Disney's four theme parks, Universal's film worlds for older children and teenagers, SeaWorld and Legoland can fill a fortnight, and everything from stroller hire to bunk-room suites is designed with families in mind. The downside is long queues in the summer heat, so a few pool days in between help.

Myrtle Beach is the easier place to manage without a car, though only just. In the oceanfront blocks around the boardwalk you can get about on foot, the beach doubles as a long, flat promenade, and bicycles or golf carts handle short local trips. Kings Highway crawls in summer, though.

Outside the resorts, Orlando gives you no such choice. Parks, hotel zones, the airport and downtown sit miles apart along Interstate 4 and its toll roads, and the buses are rarely useful. The exception is staying on-site at Disney or Universal, where monorail, boats, buses, gondolas and water taxis let a family manage without a car.

Orlando is the better place to shop. Its two premium outlet centres and the Mall at Millenia draw visitors for American and designer brands, and Park Avenue in Winter Park adds boutiques and galleries.

Myrtle Beach also has big outlet malls and the town-centre feel of the Market Common, but beyond those it is mostly enormous beachwear shops. Its one real local craft is the sweetgrass baskets sold along the coast road south, which Orlando has nothing to match.

Myrtle Beach is the cheaper week. Its huge stock of motels and condos with kitchens keeps costs down, especially outside July, and the main attraction, the beach, is free.

Orlando's off-site rooms on International Drive and in Kissimmee are fairly priced, but multi-day park tickets, express passes, parking and meals in the parks add up quickly, and on-site resorts cost more again. Both need a car, and in both places tips go on top of restaurant bills.

Orlando has a real, if modest, stage. The Dr. Phillips Center hosts touring Broadway productions and the Orlando Philharmonic, Orlando Shakespeare Theater plays in Loch Haven Park and the Fringe fills the spring. The park shows and the resident acrobatic show at Disney Springs come on top of that.

Myrtle Beach's evening entertainment is big variety theatres staging country, gospel and Christmas revues, plus dinner shows with knights or pirates. They make a fun family night out, but there is no orchestra or serious drama beyond them.

Neither is a place to choose for rest. Both rely on resort spas, and neither has a bathing tradition. Where the calm comes from is what differs. In Myrtle Beach it is the quieter southern shore around Pawleys Island, especially in spring and autumn. In Orlando it is the lakes and tree-lined streets of Winter Park, or a pool day taken between park days.