Orlando or Wisconsin Dells?

Neither town is on a beach, but Orlando at least has the ocean within reach. Cocoa Beach and New Smyrna Beach are wide Atlantic strands about an hour east, with surf and warm water for much of the year, and the calmer Gulf around Clearwater is within a long drive.

Wisconsin Dells has lakes instead. Devil's Lake has sandy beaches under quartzite bluffs about half an hour away, and Mirror Lake and Lake Delton are good for paddling, but the swimming season only lasts through the summer months. In both places most of the swimming actually happens in waterparks and pools.

Orlando eats better, as long as you leave the parks. Mills 50 has a long run of Vietnamese and other Asian kitchens, Winter Park and Audubon Park have chef-led restaurants and farmers' markets, and Epcot's World Showcase makes grazing inside a park more interesting than usual.

Wisconsin Dells has a narrower menu, though it has more local character: old supper clubs with relish trays and brandy old fashioneds, the Friday fish fry, squeaky cheese curds and fudge on Broadway. Past that it is mostly steakhouses and buffets, and people who care about food tend to save it for Madison.

Neither is a place to come for heritage, but Orlando has one real treasure. The Morse Museum in Winter Park holds the largest collection of Tiffany anywhere, including his chapel interior, and Loch Haven Park adds a modest art museum or two.

Wisconsin Dells has less. The H.H. Bennett Studio explains how photographs of the gorges first brought tourists here, and Broadway's upside-down houses and wax museums are entertaining kitsch rather than history.

Orlando has a real night out. Downtown along Orange Avenue and around Wall Street Plaza, a large student crowd fills bars and clubs late at weekends, Ivanhoe Village has a relaxed gay scene, and Disney Springs and CityWalk offer easier themed evenings near the resorts.

Wisconsin Dells goes quiet once the waterparks close. There are taverns and taprooms, a supper-club bar after dinner and a late-opening casino near Baraboo, but no clubs, and anyone looking for more drives an hour to Madison.

The landscape is the reason Wisconsin Dells exists, and it beats Orlando outdoors. The river cuts narrow sandstone canyons that you can explore by boat or kayak, and Devil's Lake has steep boulder trails and some of the Midwest's best rock climbing. Autumn colour and winter skiing make it a place to visit in more than one season.

Orlando's outdoors is flat and watery: clear springs at Wekiwa, manatees at Blue Spring in winter, airboats among alligators and excellent birdwatching at Merritt Island. It is rewarding, but there is nothing to climb, and summer heat confines it to early mornings.

Orlando's day trips carry bigger names. The Kennedy Space Center, with the Saturn V and the shuttle Atlantis, is an hour away, and Spanish St Augustine and the Dalí Museum in St Petersburg are each a long drive.

From Wisconsin Dells the outings are closer and more modest: Madison and its lakes, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin and the House on the Rock at Spring Green, and Circus World in Baraboo. You need a car from both, but the drives from the Dells are shorter.

Both towns are built for children, and Orlando operates on a far larger scale. Disney's four theme parks, Universal's film worlds, SeaWorld and Legoland mean that teenagers and toddlers alike have plenty to do, although the queues, the heat and the sheer size of it all call for planning and some rest days.

Wisconsin Dells is easier and more contained. The indoor waterpark resorts keep running through the winter, duck boats go through the gorges, and many hotels have slides of their own, which suits younger children well. Teenagers are more likely to run out of things to do.

In Orlando the car does nearly all the work, and the distances are long. A typical day might mean a stretch of interstate from a Kissimmee hotel to the parks, then another drive across town to Winter Park or downtown, with park traffic slowing things at busy times. The buses are too slow to plan around. A stay inside Disney or Universal is the exception, because their own monorail, boats, gondolas and water taxis let a family leave the car parked. It also helps that the city has its own international airport, with a rail link south to Miami.

The Dells is just as car-dependent, but far less work day to day. Getting from a resort to a waterpark or the outlets takes minutes, not a long run on a highway, and the short downtown stretch of Broadway can be done on foot. The catch comes on arrival. There is no airport in town, so anyone flying in lands at Madison and drives the last hour.

Orlando is a shopping destination in its own right, especially for international visitors. There are premium outlets on International Drive and Vineland Avenue, luxury labels at the Mall at Millenia and boutiques along Park Avenue, although it is all about brands rather than discovery.

Wisconsin Dells offers T-shirts, taffy and Wisconsin cheese along Broadway, plus one outlet centre on the edge of town that is handy on a wet afternoon.

Overall costs are similar, but the money goes in different places. In Orlando, rooms in Kissimmee and along International Drive are fairly priced, and multi-day park tickets, express passes, parking and in-park meals make up most of the bill.

In the Dells the season matters most. Summer weekends at the big waterpark resorts are the expensive part, while older motels, ordinary Midwestern restaurant prices and the free state parks keep a visit outside the peak fairly modest.

Orlando has a proper stage. The Dr. Phillips Center hosts touring Broadway shows and the Orlando Philharmonic, Orlando Shakespeare Theater plays in Loch Haven Park, and the spring Fringe is one of the oldest in the country, quite apart from the polished shows inside the parks.

In Wisconsin Dells, performance means magic shows, dinner shows, and tribute acts and comedians at a theatre in Lake Delton. For serious theatre, you drive to the outdoor classical stage at Spring Green.

Calm in Orlando comes from the resorts rather than the surroundings. Landscaped pools, lazy rivers and full spas around Lake Buena Vista make an easy rest day between park days, and couples who want a slower pace can find it among Winter Park's lakes and tree-lined streets.

In the Dells the quiet is found outdoors: an adults-only spa retreat in the woods, early mornings on the river, and pine woods and lakes left empty in the off-season. On summer weekends, though, the waterslides set a noisy pace.