New Orleans or Sarasota?

This is the widest gap between the two cities. New Orleans sits on a working river and beside a lake nobody bathes in, so swimming means a hotel pool or a drive of well over an hour to the shallow, murky water around Bay St. Louis.

Sarasota is built around its beaches: the powdery quartz sand of Siesta Key, Lido Key a short hop from downtown, quieter Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island, and shark-tooth hunting at Venice. The water is calm and warm for half the year, though it is worth checking for red tide before a beach day.

New Orleans is one of the few American cities where the food alone justifies the trip. It has a cuisine of its own, rich and heavy as it is: Creole and Cajun cooking, century-old dining rooms in the French Quarter, po'boy shops in Mid-City, beignets by Jackson Square and cocktails that were invented here.

Sarasota eats well but has no local signature. Gulf grouper and stone crab by the water on the keys, the dining rooms of Main Street and St Armands Circle, and the Amish pie of Pinecraft make for pleasant meals rather than a reason to come.

New Orleans has the richer and more complete historic townscape. There are the French Quarter's iron balconies and courtyards around Jackson Square and the Cabildo, the mansions of the Garden District, the above-ground tombs and the National WWII Museum. The list of museums is short, but the streets themselves carry the history.

Sarasota has one major draw in the Ringling, with its Rubens canvases, the Ca' d'Zan mansion and the circus museum. Architecture enthusiasts can add the mid-century modernist houses, but beyond that there is no old quarter to wander.

Nightlife is where New Orleans pulls furthest ahead. There is no closing time and drinks are allowed on the street, so evenings run from the neon of Bourbon Street to the music bars of Frenchmen Street and the corner bars of the Bywater. Late at night, pickpockets and rough side streets call for care.

Sarasota winds down early. A glass of wine on Main Street or a sunset drink at a beach bar in Siesta Key Village is the typical night out, and anyone who wants more drives up to Tampa or St Petersburg.

Both cities are flat, and in both the appeal lies in water and wildlife. Sarasota has the edge. Myakka River State Park, half an hour inland, has open prairie, a treetop walkway and alligators, and the bay and the mangrove tunnels off Lido Key put dolphins and manatees within paddling distance for most of the year.

New Orleans offers cypress swamps and bayous by boat or kayak, the boardwalks of the Barataria Preserve and the old oaks of City Park. Its outdoor season is shorter, with spring and late autumn the comfortable times.

The two are evenly matched for outings, but the trips differ in kind. From New Orleans they are about history and Louisiana culture: the River Road plantations, where the Whitney tells the story of the enslaved, the capitol at Baton Rouge and the Cajun prairie towns two hours west.

From Sarasota they lead to other parts of Florida. There is St Petersburg and its Dalí Museum across the Sunshine Skyway, Ybor City in Tampa, Greek Tarpon Springs, and the Edison and Ford winter estates at Fort Myers.

Sarasota is the easier place to bring children. The calm, shallow water off Siesta Key and Lido Key, the sharks and manatees at Mote Marine and the circus model at the Ringling all suit young children. The town is safe and relaxed, though you need a car for almost everything.

New Orleans has more for children than its reputation suggests, from Audubon Zoo and the riverfront aquarium to streetcar rides and the parades on St. Charles Avenue. Hot summers and the need to watch where you walk after dark make it harder work.

New Orleans is far easier without a car. The French Quarter, the Marigny and the Warehouse District are all walkable, and the St. Charles streetcar runs through the Garden District. Ride-hailing covers the airport and the swamps.

Sarasota is car country. Downtown, St Armands Circle and Siesta Key Village are each pleasant on foot, and a trolley runs along Siesta Key. The buses are infrequent, though, so most visitors hire a car and sit in winter traffic on the bridges to the keys.

New Orleans has more to browse, and more of it belongs to the place. Royal Street has its antique dealers and galleries, Magazine Street has miles of independent and vintage shops, and the French Market sells Mardi Gras masks and hot sauces. Neither city does designer labels well.

In Sarasota, shopping is a gentle resort pastime. It centres on the resort wear, jewellery and galleries of St Armands Circle and the boutiques of Main Street and Palm Avenue, with a regional mall for the chains.

Neither city is cheap, but New Orleans stretches a budget a little further. Po'boys, neighbourhood bars, the streetcar and free street music keep daily spending down, and rooms along the streetcar lines cost less than those in the Quarter.

In Sarasota, a hire car adds to the bill and meals come at resort prices. Beachfront stays on Siesta Key and Longboat Key are at their most expensive in winter. The public beaches help, and summer is noticeably cheaper.

The two differ in kind as much as in depth. New Orleans has the stronger offer for most visitors because the music is everywhere, every night: jazz, brass bands, zydeco and funk on Frenchmen Street and in Tremé, second lines on Sundays and Jazz Fest in spring. Its formal stage is modest.

Sarasota is the reverse: a small city with a real season, mostly from autumn to spring. There is opera in a restored 1920s theatre, the Sarasota Ballet with its Ashton repertoire, a full orchestra and the Asolo Rep, but little live music in clubs.

Sarasota is the more restful of the two. Its unhurried pace, the spas on Longboat Key and Lido Key, sunrise yoga on the sand and the spring-fed pool at Warm Mineral Springs, warm all year, suit a vacation spent unwinding.

New Orleans has hotel day spas and little else, and the Quarter at night is anything but calm. Even so, a courtyard guesthouse and a slow streetcar ride under the oaks have a quiet of their own.