Asheville or Pigeon Forge?

Neither town has a sea beach, so in both places swimming is a summer half-day out rather than the point of the trip. Asheville has more natural water: cold pools under waterfalls in Pisgah, the rock slide at Sliding Rock, floats on the French Broad and a small sandy beach at Lake Lure. Pigeon Forge relies more on built water, with the water park beside Dollywood and hotel pools, plus Douglas Lake and the boulder pools in the Smokies streams.

The difference here is between cooking with a sense of place and cooking for volume. Asheville's kitchens build on what the surrounding mountains produce, from trout and ramps to heirloom beans and sorghum, and its breweries, cider makers and distillers give an evening far more range than a town its size would suggest. Its weak spot is variety, with little beyond Southern and modern American food, and the best tables need booking at weekends.

Pigeon Forge feeds crowds. Pancake houses, Southern buffets and family steakhouses fill the gaps between the chains on the Parkway, and the selling point is big portions rather than ambition. Its own flavour comes down to moonshine tastings at the strip's distilleries and fudge and cornmeal treats around the Old Mill.

Asheville has real sights. The Biltmore Estate fills a day on its own. The downtown of Art Deco and Beaux-Arts buildings, with the domed City Hall and the tiled Basilica of St Lawrence, rewards a slow walk, and the art museum and Thomas Wolfe's boarding house can follow.

Pigeon Forge is a resort strip built for entertainment, with a half-scale Titanic and illusion museums. Its one genuinely historic building is the Old Mill of 1830. Visitors there who want history head into the national park for its log cabins and churches.

Neither is a late town, but Asheville gives adults a proper evening out. Its taprooms, cocktail bars and dive bars sit within walking distance of each other downtown and on the South Slope, Haywood Road in West Asheville has a more local set of bars, and there is a small, long-standing LGBTQ scene.

Evenings in Pigeon Forge are for families, with go-karts and lit-up attractions that wind down around ten. Grown-ups who want a drink usually drive to Gatlinburg or settle into the cabin hot tub.

Both towns sit at the edge of the Southern Appalachians, and the difference is which side. Pigeon Forge is the closer base for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, about half an hour away. From there it is easy to reach Cades Cove for bears and deer, Laurel Falls, and the climb up Alum Cave to Mount LeConte.

Asheville is about an hour from the Smokies but has more variety close by: the Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah National Forest for mountain biking and waterfalls, Mount Mitchell, and rafting on the French Broad and Nantahala. It suits hikers and riders who want variety, while Pigeon Forge suits those who want to concentrate on the national park.

Both lists are short, and both include Cherokee, with its museum and the Oconaluftee village. From Asheville the outings are mostly to small mountain towns such as Hendersonville, Black Mountain and Brevard, the gateway to the waterfall country. Greenville's riverside downtown and the autumn orchards add variety.

Pigeon Forge has the better city outing in Knoxville, about forty minutes away, and Gatlinburg's craft studios are next door. Its strongest day out is Asheville itself, close to two hours away.

Pigeon Forge is the clear choice for families. Dollywood and its water park, the mini-golf, mountain coasters and go-karts are all along one road, and the aquarium is twenty minutes away in Gatlinburg. Large cabins and indoor water-park hotels are built for groups.

Asheville works for active children, who will enjoy the Western North Carolina Nature Center, Sliding Rock, river tubing and the farmyard at Biltmore. It has no theme park, though, and families staying there face a two-hour drive to Dollywood.

You need a car in both, but Asheville at least has a centre you can walk, with downtown, the South Slope and the River Arts District within reach on foot or by a short ride. Pigeon Forge is a multi-lane strip where you can only walk inside each attraction complex, and its trolley is slow and does not reach the hillside cabins. October weekends clog the scenic roads in both, and Pigeon Forge also has heavy traffic on the Parkway in summer and over Christmas.

Asheville is the better choice for anyone who wants to take home something handmade. Pottery, glass, weaving and woodwork fill the downtown galleries and the River Arts District studios, the Folk Art Center on the Parkway shows the region's crafts, and there are independent shops around the Grove Arcade and Lexington Avenue.

Pigeon Forge is about outlet malls full of American mid-market brands. Quilts and cornmeal around the Old Mill and the craft studios above Gatlinburg are the better finds among the T-shirts and fudge.

Pigeon Forge is the cheaper base. Thousands of motel rooms and cabins keep lodging reasonable outside the busy weeks, a shared cabin splits well between families, and breakfasts and buffets cost little. The big costs are tickets for Dollywood and the dinner shows.

Asheville's inns and downtown hotels are expensive and rise sharply on autumn weekends, and Biltmore is a costly day out. Both need a hire car, and in both the trails cost almost nothing.

Asheville has the more rewarding music. Its downtown venues bring in touring rock, indie and Americana acts, bluegrass and old-time jams fill the pubs, and Shindig on the Green holds free summer evenings of fiddle music and clogging. The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival has run there since 1928.

Pigeon Forge has dozens of theatres, but nearly everything they stage is the same kind of show: broad family revues, comedy, magic and dinner spectacles along the Parkway, with gospel and bluegrass on Dollywood's stages by day. Neither town is worth travelling to for orchestral music or serious theatre.

Asheville has a long tradition of rest, dating back to the nineteenth-century visitors who came to recover their health in its mountain air. You can see it in the yoga studios and retreats, the large spas of the hillside resort hotels, and the riverside mineral-water tubs at Hot Springs.

Pigeon Forge has only a few day spas and resort spas. Its quiet comes from the cabins with porches and private hot tubs high above the noise of the strip, so couples should book well away from the Parkway.