Asheville or Atlanta?

Neither city is a beach destination. Both are hours from the coast, so swimming means fresh water. In Asheville that is cold mountain water: waterfall pools in Pisgah, the natural rock slide at Sliding Rock, floats on the French Broad and the small beach at Lake Lure.

Atlanta's version is warmer and more like a family day out, with the sandy swimming areas at Lake Lanier and Lake Allatoona, where the water is bath-warm by midsummer. Pick Asheville for a bracing swim after a hike, and Atlanta for a lazy lake weekend.

Both eat well, in different ways. Asheville's table is Appalachian and farm-led: trout, heirloom beans, ramps and biscuits, with breweries all over town and cider and mead besides. Its weak spot is international cooking.

Atlanta has that range. Buford Highway has Korean, Vietnamese, Ethiopian and Mexican kitchens, alongside the meat-and-three cafeterias, west-side soul food and Sunday brunch. In Atlanta you will be driving between the best places, while in Asheville much of it is within walking distance downtown.

Each fills two or three days, but the two offer very different things. Asheville's sightseeing is about buildings: the Vanderbilts' Biltmore château with its Olmsted gardens, and a downtown of 1920s Art Deco and Beaux-Arts buildings that survived largely intact.

Atlanta lost most of its old townscape in 1864. Its weight lies in recent history: the King birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue, and the civil rights centre downtown. The High Museum is also a stronger art collection than anything in Asheville.

Atlanta has much more to offer after dark. Its big clubs play the hip-hop and trap the city is known for, Edgewood Avenue packs dive bars and dance floors into a few blocks, and Midtown has one of the South's largest gay scenes. You need rides between these areas, though.

Asheville is the reverse: taprooms and cocktail bars a short walk apart on the South Slope and downtown, an easy-going crowd, and little open much past midnight.

Asheville wins clearly here. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs along the edge of town, Pisgah begins just to the south, and Mount Mitchell and the Smokies are about an hour away. It has grassy balds, rafting rivers, some of the country's best mountain-biking, and spectacular October colour.

Atlanta's green side is closer to town and gentler: its tree canopy, Piedmont Park, the granite dome of Stone Mountain and paddling on the Chattahoochee. For real mountains, Atlanta visitors drive two hours north to the same Appalachian range Asheville sits in.

Asheville's day trips lead mostly into the landscape: the waterfall country around Brevard, the apple orchards of the foothills in autumn, and the Cherokee museum and Oconaluftee village to the west. Hendersonville and the Carl Sandburg Home at Flat Rock are the main small-town stops.

Atlanta's outings go to towns instead: Athens with its music history, Madison's pre-Civil War houses, the gold-rush square at Dahlonega and, two hours north, Chattanooga's riverfront and aquarium. Savannah, the state's best-known historic town, is too far for a day out and needs a night away.

Atlanta has much more for children. The Georgia Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta's gorillas, Fernbank's dinosaur skeletons, the children's museum and Six Flags could fill a week. Summer heat and traffic are the drawbacks.

Asheville suits active children: river tubing, Sliding Rock, the rope courses and the nature centre's bears and wolves. But it has no zoo, aquarium or theme park, and the nearest large park, Dollywood, is two hours away.

Both need a car, but in different ways. Asheville's downtown and South Slope are compact enough to walk, and from there you drive winding mountain roads to the Parkway and the trailheads.

Atlanta has more transport in the city itself. MARTA rail links the airport, downtown, Midtown and Buckhead, and the BeltLine trail joins several neighbourhoods. Outside that corridor it is motorways and heavy rush-hour traffic.

The two are about level but sell very different things. Asheville is for handmade work: pottery, glass and weaving in the River Arts District studios, the Folk Art Center, and boutiques in the Grove Arcade.

Atlanta has what Asheville lacks, namely the department stores and luxury labels in the large Buckhead malls, plus vintage clothes and records in Little Five Points. It has no local craft to speak of.

Neither is cheap, and the costs come from different places. Asheville's inns charge a premium on autumn weekends and Biltmore is a costly day out, but the trails, waterfalls and Parkway cost nothing.

Atlanta's hotels are fairer value away from Buckhead, and the King historical sites are free, though the big family attractions charge steep entry. Car hire adds to the bill in both cities.

Atlanta has the fuller programme. The symphony and the Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff Arts Center, full opera and ballet seasons, Broadway tours at the Fox, and arena tours by major hip-hop and R&B acts give it real depth.

Asheville's strength is roots music rather than formal stages. It has bluegrass jams and street buskers, free fiddle-and-clogging nights at Shindig on the Green, and a folk festival that has run since 1928.

Asheville is far better for slowing down. It has a long history as a mountain-air health resort, and today has retreats, yoga, resort spas and the riverside mineral tubs at Hot Springs, all set against cool evenings and quiet porches.

Atlanta's best offering is the large Korean bathhouses in the north-eastern suburbs, some open all night. Beyond those and the hotel spas, the city's sprawl and summer heat make it hard to relax.