Asheville or Louisville?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, and Asheville's slight edge comes only from its mountain water. Summer swimming there means waterfall pools in Pisgah, the natural rock slide at Sliding Rock, tubing on the French Broad and a small sandy beach at Lake Lure. All of it stays cold even in July.

In Louisville the Ohio is a working river with barges and strong currents, so nobody swims in it. Cooling off means a public or hotel pool, or a drive out to the reservoir lakes in the Kentucky countryside.

Asheville has the more rewarding table. It is built on dozens of breweries across downtown, the South Slope and West Asheville, and on Appalachian produce such as trout, heirloom beans, ramps and sorghum. That produce is sold at the tailgate markets and cooked in chef-led dining rooms.

Louisville answers with bourbon rather than beer, poured by the hundred on Whiskey Row, and with dishes found nowhere else, such as the hot brown, burgoo and Derby pie. In both cities the choice narrows quickly beyond Southern cooking.

The two are close in depth, with two or three good days of sightseeing in each, but the sights are different. Asheville's are mostly about buildings. The Biltmore Estate, a Gilded Age château, takes a whole day, and the downtown's Art Deco and Beaux-Arts buildings survived intact through the long slump after the 1920s.

Louisville's sights tell the story of what made it famous: Churchill Downs and the Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center, and the Slugger and Frazier museums on Whiskey Row. The Victorian mansions of Old Louisville give it the better neighbourhood walk.

In both cities a night out means bars rather than clubs, but the bars keep different hours. Asheville's evenings centre on taprooms and cocktail bars downtown and on the South Slope, with Haywood Road for a more local crowd, and most places wind down around midnight.

Louisville's evenings can run much later, because some bars hold late licences. The choice runs from the dive bars and patios of Bardstown Road and the bourbon bars of NuLu to the chain bars of Fourth Street Live. Derby season in spring brings the city's wildest nights.

This is where the two cities differ most. Asheville sits in the Southern Appalachians, with the Blue Ridge Parkway on its edge and Pisgah just to the south. Mount Mitchell, at 2,037m the highest peak in the eastern United States, is an hour away, and the Great Smokies lie to the west. The area offers ridge hikes over grassy balds, some of the country's best mountain biking and whitewater on three rivers.

Louisville's outdoors are gentler: the Olmsted parks at Cherokee and Iroquois, the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio and woodland trails in Bernheim Forest. Its one big natural sight is Mammoth Cave, an hour and a half's drive away.

Louisville has the better range of day trips. Bourbon country starts around Bardstown, under an hour south, and the distillery roads lead on toward Frankfort and Lawrenceburg. Lexington's horse farms and Keeneland, Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace are all easy drives too.

From Asheville, most excursions head into the landscape itself. The towns within reach, such as Hendersonville, Brevard and Black Mountain, are small. Cherokee's museum and Oconaluftee village and Greenville's riverside downtown add some variety.

Asheville keeps children busy outdoors, while Louisville has the attractions families usually plan a city stay around. In Asheville, days fill with short waterfall hikes, river tubing, Sliding Rock and treetop zip lines. The Western North Carolina Nature Center has black bears, red wolves and otters, and younger children enjoy the farmyard at Biltmore. There is no large zoo, aquarium or theme park in town, and the nearest big park, Dollywood, is about two hours away over the mountains.

Louisville has a well-regarded zoo, several floors of hands-on exhibits at the Kentucky Science Center, and roller coasters and a water park at Kentucky Kingdom. The Mega Cavern adds tram tours and underground ziplines. Its summers are hotter, though, which matters with small children.

Both are car cities with walkable centres and thin bus networks, so a hire car is the norm in either. From Asheville's compact, hilly downtown you can walk to the South Slope and the River Arts District. Biltmore, the Parkway and the trailheads, though, are reached on slow, winding mountain roads that get crowded on October weekends.

Louisville is flatter and easier to drive, with short distances and mild traffic. Still, Churchill Downs, the Highlands and the big parks all lie beyond the walkable stretch of Main Street and NuLu.

Asheville is the better place to shop, as long as you want something handmade. Appalachian pottery, woodwork, glass and weaving fill the studios of the River Arts District and the galleries downtown. The Folk Art Center is the showcase of a craft guild founded in the 1930s, and the Grove Arcade adds boutiques and bookshops.

Louisville offers less: a few design shops in NuLu, vintage clothing and records on Bardstown Road, and suburban malls full of chains. The best thing to take home is a bottle of bourbon that is hard to find elsewhere, or a Derby hat.

Neither city is a bargain, and the costs fall in different places. Asheville's inns and hotels are expensive and climb steeply on autumn leaf weekends, and a day at Biltmore is costly. On the other hand, the trails, waterfalls and the Parkway are free, and midweek or winter stays are cheaper.

In Louisville, hotels are the saving, with moderate rates outside racing season. A hire car or ride-hailing and tipped meals push up what you spend each day. Derby week is the time to avoid on a budget, when room rates rise several times over.

Asheville's music comes from the Appalachian porch, while Louisville's best is found in the concert hall and the playhouse. In Asheville that means bluegrass and old-time jams in pubs, buskers downtown, free summer evenings of fiddle music and clogging at Shindig on the Green, and the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, held every year since 1928. A few downtown and riverside venues bring in touring rock and Americana.

Louisville has the formal programme that Asheville lacks. The Kentucky Center is home to the orchestra, opera and ballet, and Actors Theatre has long staged new American plays. Summer brings Shakespeare in Central Park, and bars on Bardstown Road have live bands, often playing bluegrass and Americana.

Asheville is by far the better place to unwind. Its nineteenth-century name as a place to recover in the mountain air lives on in retreats, yoga studios and large hillside resort spas. Hot Springs, about forty minutes away, has mineral water piped into tubs beside the French Broad.

Louisville has hotel and day spas and little else. For a proper spa break, the nearest choice is the old mineral-spring resorts of French Lick and West Baden Springs in Indiana, about an hour and a half away.