New Orleans or Pensacola?

Here the gap is as wide as it gets. New Orleans sits on a working river and a lake that nobody bathes in. Its nearest sand, on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, is well over an hour away and has shallow, murky water, so for most visitors a swim means the hotel pool.

Pensacola is built around its beaches. Pensacola Beach and the Gulf Islands National Seashore run for miles of white quartz sand and clear green water. Perdido Key is quieter, and the sound side has calm shallows for toddlers. Watch the rip-current flags on rough days.

New Orleans is one of the few American cities people visit just to eat. Every meal can be part of the trip: Creole and Cajun cooking, French Quarter dining rooms more than a century old, po'boy shops in Mid-City, beignets by Jackson Square and a Sazerac in the city where it was invented. The food is rich, though, and there is little range beyond the local tradition.

Pensacola eats well but simply, with Gulf oysters, grouper sandwiches and royal red shrimp in casual waterfront places, plus a small modern Southern scene around Palafox Street. Even its gumbo borrows from its neighbour to the west.

New Orleans has much the stronger old town. The French Quarter is an unusually complete colonial district, with Jackson Square, St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo at its heart. The Garden District, the above-ground tombs and the National WWII Museum add several more days.

Pensacola's past is just as layered, having lived under five flags, but less of it survives to see. There are a few restored streets around the Seville district and Plaza Ferdinand, Fort Pickens on the island and the huge National Naval Aviation Museum, which sits on an active base with ID checks. Two or three days cover it.

Going out is one of the main reasons to choose New Orleans. There is no closing time, and you can carry a drink along the street in a plastic cup. Nights run from neon Bourbon Street, where the crowds bring pickpockets, to the more local bars of Frenchmen Street and the Bywater.

Pensacola's nightlife is smaller and seasonal: pubs, rooftop bars and taprooms on Palafox Street and in the Seville Quarter, beach bars with sand floors on the island, and the rowdy roadhouse on the Alabama line. Outside summer and weekends it goes quiet early. Neither city is much for clubbing.

Both sit on flat, wet ground with no hills, but Pensacola makes more of it. The Gulf Islands National Seashore has dunes, salt marsh, a bike path and dolphins in the bay, and you can kayak or paddleboard straight from the shore. Divers head for the sunken aircraft carrier offshore, and inland the Blackwater River is clear enough for canoeing.

New Orleans' nature is the swamp: boat and kayak trips among alligators and Spanish moss within an hour, the Barataria boardwalks and, in town, the oaks and lagoons of City Park. In summer both cities push outdoor plans into the early morning.

New Orleans has the slightly better choice of outings, mainly thanks to the River Road plantations about an hour upstream. The Whitney, which tells the story of the people enslaved there, is the most moving stop, and Oak Alley the most photographed. Baton Rouge, the Gulf towns of Bay St. Louis and Ocean Springs, and the Cajun prairie around Lafayette complete the list.

From Pensacola the best day out is Mobile, an hour west, with its antebellum streets and battleship museum, plus Fairhope and Fort Morgan across the bay. To the east lie Destin, Seaside and Rosemary Beach, but these are mostly more beaches, and every trip needs a car.

Pensacola is the easier family choice, mostly because the beach does the work: warm, gentle water in summer, shallows on the sound side for toddlers and condos with kitchens. The Naval Aviation Museum, the Blue Angels display team, the lighthouse climb and the tunnels of Fort Pickens fill the other days, though there are no theme parks.

New Orleans has more for children than its reputation suggests: Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas, the rides and children's museum in City Park, streetcars and paddle steamers. It needs more care, though, as Bourbon Street at night and some areas after dark are no place for children.

New Orleans is far easier without a car. The French Quarter, the Marigny and the Warehouse District are walkable. The slow but charming streetcars run along St. Charles Avenue and out to City Park, and ride-hailing covers the gaps.

In Pensacola only downtown around Palafox Street is walkable, and the seasonal beach trolley helps little beyond the beach strip. The beaches, the naval air station and Perdido Key are spread out along highways and bridges, so you will need to hire a car.

Neither city is a big shopping destination, but New Orleans is far more interesting to browse. You can bring home things found nowhere else: antiques and art from Royal Street's dealers and galleries, finds from the independent and vintage shops along Magazine Street, and Mardi Gras masks and costumes.

Pensacola has a handful of boutiques and antique shops on Palafox Street, the Saturday market, a regional mall and swimwear shops on the island.

Overall costs are much the same, but the money goes in different places. In New Orleans rooms are the big expense: they are priced like any big city, with high taxes and steep rises at Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. Po'boys, the streetcar and the street music cost little.

In Pensacola beachfront condos are expensive in summer and much cheaper out of season, and the naval museum is free. The car hire, though, is an extra cost that visitors to New Orleans can largely skip.

Music is New Orleans' great draw. Jazz, brass bands, funk, zydeco and blues play every night on Frenchmen Street, in Tremé and the Bywater, on Royal Street's pavements and in the Sunday second-line parades, with Jazz Fest and the French Quarter Festival on top. Formal culture is thin, though, with a small opera company and touring Broadway shows at the Saenger Theatre.

Pensacola has its own historic Saenger Theatre, which hosts the local symphony, opera and ballet. It is a busy stage for a small city, but it offers a pleasant evening rather than a reason to visit.

Neither city has a spa tradition, and both offer little more than day spas in the larger hotels and a few studios in town.

The difference is in how you slow down. In New Orleans it means a quiet courtyard guesthouse and slow streetcar rides under the oaks, away from the noise of the Quarter at night. In Pensacola it means the empty stretches of the island and Perdido Key outside the summer peak, which is slightly more restful.