Albuquerque or Kansas City?

Both are deep inland and neither is a swimming destination. Albuquerque's high desert setting means hotel pools or a drive to a reservoir such as Cochiti Lake, while Kansas City's summer swimming happens at sandy lake beaches in county parks around the metro area, which are slightly easier to make a family afternoon of.

Both cities give you one regional cooking style worth the trip, and they could hardly taste more different. In Albuquerque it is New Mexican food built on the state's own chile, red, green or both, served as carne adovada, blue corn enchiladas and stuffed sopaipillas in family places in the valleys and along old Route 66, with the smell of roasting chile in late summer.

Kansas City answers with hickory smoke: burnt ends, sweet molasses sauce and smokehouses from old counters near 18th and Vine to polished dining rooms, plus cattle-town steakhouses. It has a little more beyond the speciality, with the River Market's Vietnamese, Ethiopian and Middle Eastern counters and a Mexican Westside, while both have craft breweries and little fine dining.

Kansas City has the weightier sights. The Nelson-Atkins is a major encyclopaedic art museum, the National WWI Museum is the country's main account of that war, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and American Jazz Museum tell stories found nowhere else, with Union Station and the Spanish-style Plaza adding architecture.

Albuquerque's appeal is smaller and more rooted in place: the adobe plaza and church of Old Town, the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the petroglyphs carved into volcanic rock. It makes a good couple of days on the region's Native and Hispanic past rather than a museum city.

Kansas City gives you more choice after dark, with four separate districts of different character: the sports-bar block of Power and Light, Westport's student strip, and the calmer craft beer and cocktail bars of the Crossroads and River Market. You will need rides between them.

Albuquerque's evenings centre on Central Avenue, with a downtown bar strip that gets rowdy on weekends and quieter Nob Hill taprooms. Its advantage is the dry, warm patio weather from spring to autumn, but midweek both cities wind down early.

Albuquerque is far stronger here. The Sandia Mountains rise as a wall on the east side, the tramway climbs to a crest over 3,000m with pine forest trails, the bosque shades the Rio Grande, and wintering cranes, volcanic cones and the Jemez Mountains lie close by.

Kansas City's setting is rolling prairie and farmland along the Missouri and Kansas rivers. Swope Park, Loose Park's rose garden, creekside trails and reservoir walks make for pleasant outings, but real hiking country such as the Ozarks is several hours away.

Albuquerque has the better excursions by a wide margin. Santa Fe, about an hour north and reachable by commuter train, fills a full day with its plaza, Canyon Road galleries and museums, and a car adds Acoma's Sky City, Bandelier's cliff dwellings, Chimayo and the Turquoise Trail villages.

Kansas City's outings are pleasant half days rather than famous sights: Truman's home in Independence, the university town of Lawrence, the river town of Weston and St Joseph's Pony Express museum. Almost all of them need a car.

Albuquerque's family appeal comes from its setting and one great event. The BioPark puts a zoo, an aquarium and a garden along the river, and Explora and the dinosaur halls are in Old Town. The tramway ride up the Sandias feels like an adventure, and in October hundreds of balloons rise together at dawn at the Balloon Fiesta. Mind the strong sun at altitude.

Kansas City counters with built attractions: Worlds of Fun and its water park, a large zoo, Science City inside Union Station, and the aquarium and Legoland centre at Crown Center, with fountains to splash in and relaxed ball games through the summer. In both cities, expect plenty of driving from one attraction to the next.

Both are car cities, but Kansas City makes a day or two without one more realistic. Its streetcar along Main Street links the River Market, downtown, Union Station, Crown Center and Midtown, so staying on that line puts many sights within reach, with ride-hailing for the rest.

In Albuquerque only Old Town is truly walkable, and the Central Avenue bus is the one useful link to downtown, the university and Nob Hill. The mountains, the petroglyphs and nearly every day trip need a hire car, though the airport is close and driving is easy.

Neither is a shopping destination, but they offer different things. Albuquerque's distinctive buy is Native and Southwestern craft, silver and turquoise jewellery, Pueblo pottery and Navajo weaving, best bought from artists or reputable dealers around Old Town and the Pueblo Cultural Center.

Kansas City has the more conventional shopping street in the Country Club Plaza, with chains and upmarket stores in a 1920s Spanish-style setting, plus galleries and vintage shops in the Crossroads and record shops around Westport.

Costs are much alike: both are cheaper than coastal America but not budget trips, and in both the hire car, sales tax and tipping add up. The differences lie in timing and free sights. Albuquerque's rates jump sharply in Balloon Fiesta week, while its trails and Old Town cost little, and Kansas City's free entry to the Nelson-Atkins helps, though theme park and zoo tickets weigh on a family budget.

Kansas City has the deeper stage. Jazz is its own art form, the music of Count Basie and Charlie Parker, still played most nights in small clubs with late jam sessions, and the Kauffman Center houses a symphony, opera and ballet, with the Folly Theater and Starlight's summer musicals besides.

Albuquerque's scene is smaller but has its own character: touring shows at Popejoy Hall, the Pueblo Deco KiMo Theatre, a surprising depth in flamenco and traditional Native dances at the Pueblo Cultural Center on weekends. The open-air opera in the hills above Santa Fe is within an evening's drive in summer.

Albuquerque has more to offer a slower stay, mainly because of the hot springs in the northern New Mexico hills, at Jemez Springs and around Santa Fe, and the resort spas on Pueblo lands with mountain views. Kansas City's nearest equivalent is the old mineral-water resort of Excelsior Springs, otherwise it is hotel and day spas, with a quiet morning in Loose Park's rose garden or the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park as the easiest way to unwind.