New Orleans or Orlando?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Orlando has the better coast within reach. Wide, soft Atlantic strands at Cocoa Beach and New Smyrna Beach are about an hour east, and the clearer Gulf water at Clearwater is about two hours west.

From New Orleans the nearest sand is the Mississippi coast around Bay St. Louis, also more than an hour away, where the sea is warm but shallow and brownish. In both cities the daily swim is usually in a hotel pool, though in Orlando you can add the big water parks.

Food is one of the main reasons to choose New Orleans. Creole and Cajun cooking is entirely its own, from old French Quarter dining rooms to po'boy counters in Mid-City, and the calendar adds crawfish in spring and oysters in the cooler months. The cocktails count as cuisine too. The food is rich, and there is little variety beyond the local tradition.

Orlando eats mostly in chains and theme-park restaurants, and Epcot's country pavilions are the most fun place to graze. The better food is off the tourist strip, with Vietnamese kitchens in Mills 50 and chef-led restaurants in Winter Park, and you usually need a car to get there.

New Orleans has a genuine historic townscape: the Creole and Spanish-era French Quarter around Jackson Square and the Cabildo, the mansions of the Garden District and the above-ground tombs. Add the National WWII Museum and you have several full days of sightseeing, most of it outdoors on the streets.

Orlando has little old architecture. Its one standout is the Tiffany collection at the Morse Museum in Winter Park, and beyond that a few smaller museums will fill an afternoon. Anyone planning a trip around history will be much happier in Louisiana.

New Orleans is one of the great American nights out. There is no closing time, you can carry a drink in the street, and the evening drifts from the noise of Bourbon Street to music bars on Frenchmen Street and corner bars in the Bywater. Late on Bourbon Street, keep an eye on your pockets.

Orlando's resort districts, Disney Springs and CityWalk, are tidy and safe but quieten early. The real late scene is downtown on Orange Avenue, driven by students, and most park visitors are asleep before it gets going.

The two are broadly level and look alike: both are flat and full of water, with alligators and herons. Around New Orleans that means cypress swamps and bayou boat tours, the Barataria boardwalks and the levee walk along the Mississippi.

Orlando has the clearer water. You can kayak at Wekiwa Springs, watch manatees at Blue Spring in winter, and go birdwatching at Merritt Island and Canaveral National Seashore. Its milder, drier winter also gives it a longer season for being outdoors.

Orlando has slightly more variety for days out. The Kennedy Space Center is the highlight, and Spanish St Augustine, Tampa's Ybor City and the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg each make a full day, all by car.

New Orleans has one classic route, the River Road plantations, where the Whitney's account of slavery is the one to see. Beyond that there are Baton Rouge, the small Gulf towns, and Cajun country at the far edge of a day's drive.

Orlando is built for children in a way no other city is. Between Walt Disney World, Universal, SeaWorld and Legoland, a week fills itself, and hotels arrive ready with bunk rooms and pram hire. The main tests are summer heat and the queues.

New Orleans can make a pleasant few days with children: Audubon Zoo, the aquarium, the carousel in City Park, streetcar rides and the daytime Mardi Gras parades on St. Charles Avenue. However, parts of the city are for adults after dark.

This is where the two differ most in practice. In New Orleans the French Quarter, the Marigny and the Warehouse District are close enough to walk, and the historic St. Charles streetcar runs out to Uptown. The streetcars are slow, though, and ride-hailing fills the gaps, especially at night.

Orlando is a city of highways, and you will want a car, since the parks, hotels and downtown are spread far apart along Interstate 4. The exception is staying inside Disney or Universal, where monorails, boats and buses take you between hotels and parks.

The two are about even but sell different things. New Orleans is for browsing, with antiques and galleries on Royal Street, miles of independent and vintage shops on Magazine Street, and Mardi Gras masks and pralines.

Orlando is for brands and bargains. Two large premium outlet centres and the Mall at Millenia draw international shoppers, and Park Avenue in Winter Park is its one street with character.

Neither is cheap, and the costs come from different places. In New Orleans the main expense is a room near the Quarter, especially on festival weekends. The food, the street music and the walking cost little.

In Orlando rooms off the parks are reasonable, but park tickets, car hire, parking and meals in the parks soon add up. Over a week, a family will usually spend more in Orlando than a couple will in New Orleans.

Music is the main draw in New Orleans. Traditional jazz, brass bands, zydeco and funk play every night on Frenchmen Street and in Tremé, second lines fill the streets on Sundays, and Jazz Fest is one of the great dates of the spring. Opera and classical concerts are limited.

Orlando's performance is mostly staged: Broadway tours and the Philharmonic at the Dr. Phillips Center, the Orlando Fringe in spring, and polished shows and fireworks in the parks. It has little live-music culture of its own.

Orlando is somewhat better for unwinding. Big resorts around Lake Buena Vista have full spas, lazy rivers and landscaped pools, so a massage between park days is easy to arrange, and Winter Park offers a quieter base.

New Orleans has only hotel day spas. Its rest comes from a slower pace: a courtyard guesthouse, a streetcar ride under the oaks or an afternoon in City Park. Neither city is one to choose for rest alone.