Naples, Florida or Orlando?

Naples is a beach town in the full sense: the sand runs along the whole city, the water is shallow and usually calm, and the day closes with the crowd watching the sunset from the shore. Vanderbilt, Clam Pass and the undeveloped dunes of Barefoot Beach add wilder stretches a short drive north.

Orlando is inland, so Cocoa Beach or New Smyrna Beach on the Atlantic means an hour each way, and the calmer Gulf around Clearwater is farther still. Most visitors get one beach day in a week and do the rest of their swimming in pools and water parks.

Both are comfortable rather than exciting places to eat, but they are comfortable in different ways. In Naples the best meals are Gulf seafood, such as grouper sandwiches, stone crab and oysters at the fish houses around Tin City, or long, polished dinners on Fifth Avenue South.

Orlando has more variety if you are willing to drive for it. There are Vietnamese kitchens in Mills 50, chef-led restaurants in Winter Park and Thornton Park, and Epcot's World Showcase for grazing inside the parks, though a typical visit runs on chains and themed dining.

Neither city repays a trip planned around museums, and a day covers the best of each. Naples offers the Baker Museum's American art, the racing cars of the Revs Institute and the handsome Mediterranean-style streets of Old Naples. Orlando's single real treasure is the Morse Museum in Winter Park, with its Tiffany glass and the 1893 World's Fair chapel, plus a few modest museums in Loch Haven Park.

Orlando is the better choice for a night out. Downtown around Orange Avenue and Wall Street Plaza, a student crowd keeps bars and clubs busy late at weekends, Ivanhoe Village has a relaxed gay scene, and Disney Springs and CityWalk offer easy themed bars for resort guests.

Naples goes quiet early. A sunset drink at a tiki bar, a wine bar or a piano lounge on Fifth Avenue South is about the extent of it, and in summer even that thins out.

Naples sits right on the edge of the wilderness, with Big Cypress, the western Everglades, Corkscrew Swamp and the Fakahatchee Strand all within an hour. Kayaking through the Rookery Bay mangroves, with a chance of dolphins or manatees, is an outing Orlando cannot match.

Orlando's nature is gentler and more scattered: kayaking at Wekiwa Springs, wintering manatees at Blue Spring, airboats on the Kissimmee and fine birdwatching at Merritt Island, an hour away on the coast. Both landscapes are flat and best visited from November to April.

Orlando has the stronger 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.

From Naples the options are softer: the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, shelling on Sanibel and Captiva, and Everglades City. Sarasota and Miami are each about two hours away. Both cities need a car for every trip.

Orlando is in a league of its own for children. Walt Disney World, Universal, SeaWorld and Legoland are all close by, with water parks, pool resorts and dinner shows on top, and hotels and transport designed so that families hardly need to think.

Naples is a gentler place for a family: warm, shallow water, shells and dolphins from the beach, Naples Zoo with its boat ride past primate islands and a children's museum. It suits younger children who are happy with sand and sea, and it is over three hours from the big parks.

You will want a car in both, but Naples is the more forgiving. Its compact grid around Fifth Avenue South, Third Street South and the pier is flat and walkable, so a stay in Old Naples puts the beach and dinner within reach on foot.

Orlando spreads along Interstate 4, with parks, hotels and downtown many miles apart and few pavements between them. The exception is a stay inside Disney or Universal, where monorails, boats, buses and gondolas let a family manage without a car.

Orlando is the better place to shop for brands. Two big premium outlet centres and the Mall at Millenia draw international visitors looking for American labels and low prices, and Park Avenue in Winter Park adds boutiques and galleries.

Naples is smaller and more polished: resort wear, jewellers, galleries and home-decor shops under the palms of Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South, nautical souvenirs in Tin City, and outlet malls half an hour north.

Orlando is the cheaper of the two, mainly because the vast supply of hotel rooms and condos along International Drive and in Kissimmee keeps beds reasonably priced. The money goes on park tickets, express passes and meals inside the parks, so how much you spend depends on how many park days you plan.

Naples is costly almost across the board in the winter season, from beachfront resorts to dinners priced for a wealthy clientele, plus a hire car. Summer is much cheaper and the beaches are free, but sleeping inland or in Fort Myers is the realistic way to save.

The two are evenly matched, but they offer different evenings. Naples has a concentrated winter season on its arts campus, with the Naples Philharmonic, touring Broadway shows and chamber music for its seasonal residents, and very little in summer.

Orlando's stage runs all year: the Dr. Phillips Center, Orlando Shakespeare Theater and the long-running Orlando Fringe in spring. Many visitors' main experience of performance is the parks' stage shows and fireworks.

Naples is the place to unwind. Its quiet streets, sunset walks along the Gulf, golf and large resort spas open to non-guests make rest the main point of a stay.

In Orlando, rest is what you do between park days: a massage at a Lake Buena Vista resort spa or an afternoon on a lazy river. Couples wanting real calm should base themselves in leafy Winter Park, though neither city has thermal springs or a spa tradition.