New Orleans or Palm Beach?

New Orleans faces a lake and a working river, and you can't swim in either. The nearest sand is on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, well over an hour's drive away, where the water is warm but shallow and brownish. For most visitors, swimming means the hotel pool.

Palm Beach is the opposite. The Gulf Stream runs close to its Atlantic shore, keeping the water clear and blue-green, with public stretches at the Municipal Beach and Phipps Ocean Park, and Peanut Island's calm lagoon in the inlet. Wider sand at Singer Island, Jupiter and Delray is under half an hour by car.

Eating is one of the main reasons to go to New Orleans. Creole and Cajun cooking are found nowhere else, from century-old French Quarter dining rooms to po'boy shops in Mid-City. There are crawfish boils in spring, oysters in the cool months, and the Sazerac where it was born. The cooking is rich and narrow, but it is unmistakably its own.

Palm Beach eats well but in a smart, international style: terrace lunches off Worth Avenue, stone crab in season and dress codes that are enforced. Across the bridge, West Palm Beach adds Cuban bakeries and a waterfront green market, but there is no local tradition to seek out.

New Orleans has more to see. The French Quarter's iron balconies and courtyards, Jackson Square and the Cabildo, where Louisiana passed to the United States, make a whole historic district rather than a single sight. The Garden District mansions, the above-ground tombs and the National WWII Museum add depth.

Palm Beach's heritage is Gilded Age wealth. Flagler's marble Whitehall is the essential visit, and Mizner's Mediterranean Revival courtyards line Worth Avenue. The Norton Museum across the lagoon is a strong collection, but the list is done in two or three days.

Few American cities go out like New Orleans. There is no legal closing time and you can carry drinks in the street, so a night drifts from Frenchmen Street music bars to Bywater dives and corner bars that never seem to close. Bourbon Street is the neon, crowded version, where you need to keep an eye on your pockets.

Palm Beach island closes early: dinner, a grand hotel bar, bed. A proper night out means crossing to Clematis Street and Rosemary Square in West Palm Beach, which are enjoyable at weekends but small.

Both are flat and watery, but Palm Beach gets more out of it. Reefs lie close offshore, and the shallow dive under the Blue Heron Bridge is known for seahorses and octopus. There is the Lake Trail to cycle under banyans, Loxahatchee's Everglades boardwalks, nesting sea turtles in summer and manatees in winter.

New Orleans' outdoors is swamp country. Boat and kayak tours among cypress and alligators, and the Barataria Preserve boardwalks, are within an hour. In town, City Park's live oaks and the river levee make good walks, though summer drives everyone indoors.

The two are about level for outings, but the kind of trip differs. From New Orleans, the day trips are about history. The River Road plantations, with the Whitney telling the story of the enslaved, are about an hour upstream, and Cajun prairie towns lie further west.

From Palm Beach, the big draw is a modern city: Miami's Art Deco and Little Havana are an easy fast-train ride away. Otherwise there is a string of similar resort towns such as Delray and Boca Raton, with little older heritage.

Palm Beach is slightly easier with children, mainly for its calm and its water. Peanut Island's shallow lagoon, gentle beaches and family cycling on the Lake Trail add to the zoo, the science centre and watching manatees in winter. Expect to drive between them, and the formal island itself is built for adults.

New Orleans has the Audubon Zoo, the riverfront aquarium and City Park's carousel and children's museum. Streetcar rides and catching beads at the St. Charles Avenue parades thrill younger children. Parents have to plan around the summer heat and choose carefully where they walk after dark.

New Orleans is far easier without a car. The French Quarter, the Marigny and the Warehouse District sit in a flat band you can walk, and the historic St. Charles streetcar carries you to the Garden District, slowly. Ride-hailing covers the airport and the swamps.

In Palm Beach, only the Worth Avenue area and downtown West Palm Beach, with its free trolley, are easy on foot or by bike. The beaches, the zoo and the reserves are spread out, so most visitors rent a car, though the fast train makes Miami simple.

For serious shopping, Palm Beach wins. Worth Avenue gathers the luxury houses and jewellers among palm-shaded vias, and the island's consignment shops sell designer pieces from wealthy wardrobes. Antique Row in West Palm Beach adds dealers in furniture and decorative arts.

New Orleans offers character instead of labels: chandeliers and estate jewellery on Royal Street, miles of independent and vintage shops along Magazine Street, and Carnival masks and costumes. Big-name brands are thin on the ground.

Neither is cheap, but New Orleans is much kinder to a budget. Po'boys, neighbourhood bars and the streetcar keep daily costs down, much of the music is free, and staying along the streetcar lines rather than in the Quarter cuts the room bill.

Palm Beach is among the dearest resort towns in the country, from winter-season rooms to beach parking. The usual way to soften it is to sleep in West Palm Beach and visit in the humid summer.

Music is the main reason many people visit New Orleans. Any night brings traditional jazz, brass bands, zydeco and funk in Frenchmen Street clubs and Tremé bars. On many Sundays, second-line parades move through the neighbourhoods, and Jazz Fest anchors the spring.

Palm Beach's offer is formal and seasonal. Touring musicals, visiting orchestras and a short opera season fill the Kravis Center, and Dramaworks stages serious plays, but most of it happens in winter. Beyond bar bands, live music is scarce.

Palm Beach is the better place to rest. The island is quiet and manicured, and the big oceanfront resorts have polished spas, salt-water pools and beach yoga, though it all comes at resort prices.

New Orleans has only hotel day spas. Its restfulness lies in a slow pace: a courtyard guesthouse in the morning, a streetcar under the oaks, an afternoon in City Park. With the French Quarter outside the door after dark, it is rarely a place to recharge.