Orlando or Wilmington?

Orlando sits inland, so a day at the sea means an hour's drive to Cocoa Beach or New Smyrna Beach, or nearly two hours to the calmer Gulf around Clearwater. Most of the swimming on an Orlando trip happens in resort pools and water parks.

Wilmington is not on the ocean either, but its three beach towns are all within about half an hour, and each has its own character: polished sand and a fishing pier at Wrightsville, a boardwalk at Carolina Beach, quieter sand at Kure. The water is just as warm at the height of summer, and here the beach can be part of every day, apart from summer parking and days with rip currents.

Neither city is a food destination, and they eat in different ways. Orlando offers range: the Vietnamese kitchens of Mills 50, Epcot's country pavilions and the chef-led restaurants of Winter Park, though you will need to drive between them. Wilmington's food is narrower and more local, with shrimp, oysters and flounder, vinegar-sauced whole-hog barbecue and a craft brewery scene north of downtown, but very little international cooking.

Wilmington has the stronger sense of place. Its large historic district of antebellum and Victorian houses under live oaks, the Bellamy Mansion, the Cotton Exchange and the Battleship North Carolina across the river make two or three good days.

Orlando has little old architecture. Its cultural high point is the Morse Museum's Tiffany collection in Winter Park, which includes the chapel made for the 1893 World's Fair. The museums of Loch Haven Park fill an afternoon, and the space heritage lies out on the coast.

Both cities offer a casual night out, with help from a student crowd, but the evenings are shaped differently. Orlando has two halves: themed bars at Disney Springs and CityWalk that wind down early, and downtown clubs around Orange Avenue and Church Street that run late at weekends, plus gay bars in Ivanhoe Village. Wilmington is about bars rather than clubs, with pubs and rooftop terraces along Front Street and relaxed beach bars in summer, and it goes quiet on weeknights out of season.

Both landscapes are flat and full of water, but Wilmington's coast gives more to do. Close to town you can kayak out to undeveloped Masonboro Island, surf or paddleboard off Wrightsville, fish from the piers or offshore, and walk the pine savanna of Carolina Beach State Park, where the Venus flytrap grows wild.

Orlando's best outdoors is its springs and wetlands: kayaking at Wekiwa, manatees at Blue Spring in winter and airboats past alligators on the Kissimmee headwaters. Its finest birdwatching, at Merritt Island, is an hour away on the coast, and the summer heat pushes most activity into the early morning.

Orlando has the bigger outings. The Kennedy Space Center is about an hour away and St Augustine's Spanish fort and old streets just under two hours. Tampa's Ybor City or the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg make a full day to the west.

Wilmington's list is gentler. Southport and the ferry to car-free Bald Head Island make the best day, with the Fort Fisher earthworks and Brunswick Town ruins on the way, and New Bern and Beaufort lie two hours north. These are pleasant small-town days, but none has the pull of a launch pad and a Saturn V.

Orlando is built around children in a way no coastal town can match. Walt Disney World, Universal, SeaWorld and Legoland cover every age from toddlers to teenagers. The resorts take care of the practical side, with buses, boats, stroller rental and suites with bunk rooms.

Wilmington is a good summer choice for families who want an easier pace: the old-fashioned rides on the Carolina Beach boardwalk, the aquarium at Fort Fisher, the decks of the battleship and rental houses near the sand. It makes a relaxed week, but it is a beach trip with children rather than a trip designed around them.

Both cities need a car, but Wilmington is the easier of the two. Its downtown and historic district are compact and flat, linked by the riverwalk, so evenings can be spent on foot, and you only need to drive for the beaches and outings like Southport.

Orlando spreads along Interstate 4 and its toll roads, with nothing walkable between the parks, the hotels and downtown, and the traffic is heavy at peak times. The exception is staying on-site at Disney or Universal, where monorails, boats and walkways mean you can do without a car.

Orlando is a shopping destination for brands, and many visitors arrive with lists. Two premium outlet centres, the Mall at Millenia and Disney Springs cover American and designer labels, and Park Avenue in Winter Park offers a gentler browse.

Wilmington's shopping is small and independent: boutiques, bookshops and antique dealers along Front Street and in the Cotton Exchange, plus surf wear in the beach towns. It is good for an afternoon's browsing, but not a reason to bring an empty suitcase.

Orlando ends up the dearer trip of the two, and the gap comes from the parks rather than the beds. Off-site hotels along International Drive and in Kissimmee are fairly priced, and condos let families cook for themselves, but multi-day tickets, express passes, parking and meals inside the parks add up fast, and school vacation weeks raise prices across the board.

Wilmington has no single big expense of that kind. Rooms in town are reasonable outside summer, and a plate of local shrimp or barbecue is fair value. The costs rise in high season, when beachfront hotels and rental houses fill up, and here too a hire car is hard to avoid.

The two are evenly matched, with a different feel. Orlando's serious stage is the Dr. Phillips Center, home to touring Broadway shows and the Orlando Philharmonic, alongside Orlando Shakespeare Theater and the spring Fringe, though most visitors see their shows and fireworks inside the parks. Wilmington centres on Thalian Hall, a restored 19th-century opera house, and on warm-season outdoor stages by Greenfield Lake and the river, with jazz and blues festivals that fit easily around a summer beach trip.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and both offer resort and day spas rather than retreats. The difference is the pace. In Orlando the spas, lazy rivers and pools are where you recover from long park days, while in Wilmington the slow pace of the town does the work, with calm evenings on the waterfront outside summer weekends.