Orlando or Palm Beach?

Palm Beach has the sea on its doorstep. The island is one long strip of Atlantic shore with clear Gulf Stream water, the Municipal Beach and Phipps Ocean Park are in town, Peanut Island has calm, shallow water, and the wider sand at Singer Island or Jupiter is within half an hour.

From Orlando the nearest sand, at Cocoa Beach or New Smyrna, is about an hour's drive, and the Gulf beaches are nearer two. The coast becomes a single day out, and the daily swim happens in hotel pools and water parks.

Neither city has a food tradition worth travelling for, and they eat about equally well in very different ways. Orlando is mostly chains and themed dining in the parks, with Epcot's World Showcase pavilions as the curiosity. The better cooking is in the Vietnamese kitchens of Mills 50 and the chef-led restaurants of Winter Park, and you need a car to reach them.

Palm Beach is formal and polished: long lunches on terraces off Worth Avenue, stone crab in season, and dress codes that are taken seriously. The casual side, with Cuban bakeries and the waterfront green market, is across the bridge in West Palm Beach.

Palm Beach has the better sightseeing. Whitehall, the mansion Henry Flagler built in 1902 and now the Flagler Museum, Mizner's Mediterranean Revival courtyards on Worth Avenue, the ocean-front estates and the Norton Museum of Art fill two or three days.

Orlando has little old architecture. Its cultural highlight is the Morse Museum's Tiffany collection in Winter Park, and the smaller museums in Loch Haven Park fill a slow afternoon. Anyone planning around heritage runs out of things to see sooner here.

Orlando has more choice after dark. Disney Springs and CityWalk have themed bars for visitors staying nearby. Downtown, around Orange Avenue and Church Street, a university crowd keeps bars and clubs busy late at weekends, and there are gay bars in Ivanhoe Village.

Palm Beach island is asleep by eleven, and its social life happens in private clubs. A night out means crossing to Clematis Street and Rosemary Square in West Palm Beach, which are good for a night or two.

Both sit on flat, subtropical ground, but Palm Beach has more to offer because of what lies underwater. Reefs run close offshore, and the shallow site under the Blue Heron Bridge is famous among divers for octopus and seahorses. You can also kayak from the inlet or cycle the Lake Trail along the lagoon, and the Loxahatchee refuge adds boardwalks on the edge of the Everglades.

Orlando's outdoors is freshwater. You can kayak at Wekiwa Springs, see manatees at Blue Spring in winter, ride airboats past alligators, and watch birds at Merritt Island on the coast.

The day trips are equally good, and they head in different directions. From Orlando the outings are about space and history: the Kennedy Space Center an hour east, St Augustine's Spanish fort to the north, and Ybor City in Tampa or the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg to the west, nearly all by car.

From Palm Beach the big outing is Miami, an easy ride on the fast train, for South Beach and Little Havana. Closer in, Delray, Boca Raton and the lighthouse at Jupiter are pleasant, but these resort towns are much alike and have little older heritage.

Orlando is far ahead for families. Walt Disney World, Universal, SeaWorld and Legoland, along with pool resorts, character breakfasts and suites with bunk rooms, mean the whole trip is built around children. The hard part is pacing it, not filling it.

Palm Beach is safe and calm but built for adults, and children can feel out of place in its formal restaurants. The zoo, the science centre, Manatee Lagoon and Peanut Island's shallow water make for a good family week, but a gentler one that is not organised around children.

Palm Beach is easier without a car, though not completely. The area around Worth Avenue is easy to walk, a bike on the Lake Trail is the nicest way to get about, West Palm Beach has a free trolley loop, and the fast train reaches Miami.

Orlando is a city of highways, where the parks, hotels and downtown sit miles apart along Interstate 4 and the buses are of little use to visitors. A family staying inside the Disney or Universal resorts can rely on the monorails, boats and buses there. Almost everyone else needs a hire car.

Palm Beach has the more distinctive shopping. Worth Avenue has the luxury houses and jewellers set among Mizner's courtyards, consignment shops sell designer pieces from the wardrobes of wealthy residents, and Antique Row across the water has furniture and art dealers.

Orlando is about brands and prices: two large premium outlet centres, the Mall at Millenia and the park merchandise at Disney Springs, with Park Avenue in Winter Park for boutiques. It is better for bargain hunting than for browsing.

Neither is cheap, but Orlando costs noticeably less. Off-site rooms along International Drive and in Kissimmee are fairly priced, and condos help families. Park tickets, parking and express queue passes still add up quickly.

Palm Beach is one of the most expensive resort towns in the country, with island hotels and restaurants priced for the wealthy. You can soften the cost by staying in West Palm Beach, visiting in summer and making the most of the free beaches and the Lake Trail.

The two are about equal for performing arts, but what is on stage differs. Orlando's Dr. Phillips Center hosts touring Broadway shows and the Orlando Philharmonic, the Orlando Fringe has run every spring for decades, and the parks add polished stage shows and fireworks for families.

Palm Beach is more classical and depends on the winter season. The Kravis Center has ballet, visiting orchestras and the short winter season of Palm Beach Opera, and Dramaworks and the Society of the Four Arts stage plays and chamber concerts. From late spring onwards, though, there is much less on.

Palm Beach is the better place to rest. The island is quiet and slow, the oceanfront resorts have large spas with salt-water pools, and early sea swims and yoga on the beach are easy to arrange.

An Orlando trip is the opposite, with early starts, queues and miles of walking. Its resort spas and lazy rivers are for recovering between park days, and Winter Park, with its lakes and tree-lined streets, is the calm part of town.