Orlando or Los Angeles?

Los Angeles has the beach on its doorstep, more than 100km of it from the coves of Malibu through Santa Monica and Venice to the South Bay. Surf, volleyball and the bike path along the sand are part of daily life. The drawback is the cold Pacific, which keeps most people wading or in a wetsuit.

Orlando has the opposite problem. The Atlantic at Cocoa Beach and New Smyrna is warm enough for proper swimming in summer, but it is an hour's drive away. That makes the sea a single day out, and day-to-day swimming happens in hotel pools and water parks. For a beach that belongs to the city, Los Angeles is the better choice.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Los Angeles cooks at full strength across dozens of immigrant communities: tacos from Eastside trucks, charcoal barbecue in Koreatown, regional Chinese in the San Gabriel Valley, and Thai Town and Little Ethiopia. Chef-led dining and Grand Central Market sit on top of all that.

Orlando's tourist corridor runs on chains, park counters and themed dining, and Epcot's World Showcase is the most interesting place to graze. The better meals are away from it, in the Vietnamese kitchens of Mills 50 and the restaurants of Winter Park. In both cities, the good food usually means a drive.

Los Angeles has a serious art circuit: the Getty Center and the Getty Villa, LACMA, the Broad, and the Huntington's library and gardens. On top of that come Hollywood's movie palaces and studio lots and the architecture of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Art Deco downtown. There is no real old city, but there is plenty for a week.

Orlando offers far less. Its standout is the Morse Museum in Winter Park, with the Tiffany chapel, and beyond that there are a few smaller museums in Loch Haven Park and downtown. They are worth an afternoon away from the parks, not a reason to come.

Going out in Los Angeles means picking a neighbourhood and staying there. Hollywood runs guest-list clubs, Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood is a great gay strip, downtown has rooftop bars, and Silver Lake and Echo Park keep to dive bars. With last orders at 2am and long rides between districts, few people try to combine them.

Orlando's evenings are mostly the themed bars of Disney Springs and CityWalk, which quieten early. The late local scene belongs to a student crowd on Orange Avenue downtown, and most visitors, with park days starting early, never see it.

Real mountains are within reach of Los Angeles. Griffith Park and Runyon Canyon are inside the city, the Santa Monica Mountains run down to the sea, and the San Gabriels rise above 3,000m, with winter snow on Mount Baldy. Surfing, whale watching and boats out to the Channel Islands fill out the coast.

Orlando's outdoors is flat and watery, and charming in its own way: kayaking at Wekiwa Springs, manatees at Blue Spring in winter, airboats among the alligators and birdwatching at Merritt Island. It suits gentle paddles and wildlife rather than hikes, and the summer heat pushes most of it into the early morning.

The two are evenly matched here, but the days out are of a different kind. From Los Angeles the outings are scenic and easygoing: Santa Barbara's mission and wine country, the ferry to Catalina, Laguna Beach and Ojai. There is little deep history, though, and traffic can stretch any trip.

Orlando's best excursions lean towards space and history. The Kennedy Space Center, with the Saturn V and the shuttle Atlantis, is about an hour away, and St Augustine's Spanish fort and old streets belong to the oldest continuously settled European town in the United States. Tampa's Ybor City and the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg make a fuller day.

Los Angeles would be a leading family city almost anywhere else. It has Disneyland, Universal Studios Hollywood, the space shuttle at the California Science Center and the fossils of the La Brea Tar Pits. The catch is that every outing means a drive.

Orlando is still in a different league. Walt Disney World alone has four theme parks and two water parks, and Universal, SeaWorld and Legoland are close by. Everything from resort transport to bunk-room suites and character breakfasts is designed around children, so a family can spend days without ever getting in a car.

Neither city is easy without a car, but Los Angeles gives you more options. Its Metro rail links downtown with Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach and Santa Monica, and Santa Monica, Venice and Old Pasadena are pleasant on foot.

Orlando is built almost entirely around Interstate 4 and its toll roads. The buses are of little use and the streets are not made for walking. Its one advantage is inside the resorts, where Disney's monorail, boats and gondolas and Universal's walkways and water taxis let a family staying on-site get by without a car.

Los Angeles shops by neighbourhood, and each area has its own character: Rodeo Drive for luxury, Melrose for streetwear and vintage, Abbot Kinney for independent boutiques, and Silver Lake for records and design. The Rose Bowl flea market is a serious hunting ground for vintage.

Orlando is about brands at a good price. It has two large premium outlet centres and the Mall at Millenia, with Park Avenue in Winter Park for a gentler stroll. Bargain hunters after American labels do well there, but anyone looking for independent design or local style will prefer Los Angeles.

Both cities are expensive, but Orlando is easier to keep in check. Its huge supply of hotel rooms and self-catering villas along International Drive and in Kissimmee keeps lodging reasonable for the United States. The big costs are park tickets and extras, and you can choose to cut back on those.

In Los Angeles the high costs start with the room in Santa Monica, Beverly Hills or West Hollywood, and then come a hire car, parking and tips on every meal. What makes up for it is cheap, excellent street food and free sights such as the beaches, Griffith Observatory and the Getty.

Los Angeles is a major music city. The LA Philharmonic plays at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and, in summer, at the Hollywood Bowl, and LA Opera is at the Music Center. There are also rock rooms on the Sunset Strip, jazz in Leimert Park, and comedy and improv theatres that are among the best anywhere.

Orlando has a respectable main stage in the Dr. Phillips Center, with Broadway tours and the Orlando Philharmonic, and the long-running Orlando Fringe in spring. For most visitors, though, live performance means the polished stage shows and fireworks inside the parks.

Koreatown gives Los Angeles a genuine bathing culture, with bathhouses offering hot and cold pools, scrubs and heated floors open late. Alongside them are the spas of Beverly Hills and yoga studios on every block. The city itself is not calm, and the true retreats are out of town in Ojai or the desert around Palm Springs.

Orlando's version of rest is the resort: spas, lazy rivers and landscaped pools at the Disney and Universal hotels, ideal for a recovery day between parks. For couples, the lakes and quiet streets of Winter Park are the calmest corner.