Asheville or Pittsburgh?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, but swimming means different things in each. Asheville's swimming is mountain water: cold pools under waterfalls, the natural slide at Sliding Rock and lazy floats on the French Broad. All of it makes a lively summer half-day, with Lake Lure's small beach as the closest thing to sand.

Pittsburgh's rivers are for paddling, not swimming, so a swim means driving out to the wooded reservoir beaches at Lake Arthur or the longer stretch of Lake Erie sand at Presque Isle, about two hours north.

Asheville is the stronger place to plan meals around. Its breweries are the headline, and the cooking draws closely on Appalachian farms, with trout, heirloom corn, ramps and proper biscuits and barbecue. The farmers' markets show where it all comes from. The catch is a thin international range and weekend tables that book up fast.

Pittsburgh eats more heartily and more cheaply. Pierogies and haluski come from its Central European families, and its stuffed sandwiches with the fries inside are a local tradition. The Strip District is a better market street than anything Asheville has, though the city's chef-led dining is less of a reason to visit.

The two are about equal, but they offer different kinds of sightseeing. Asheville's culture rests on one great house and one handsome downtown: the Biltmore Estate fills a day, and the Art Deco and Beaux-Arts streets around City Hall and the Grove Arcade fill another.

Pittsburgh spreads its interest across real museums: the Carnegie art and natural history collections, the Warhol, the installations of the Mattress Factory and the Nationality Rooms in the Cathedral of Learning. Its signature sight is the view of the rivers and bridges from the top of the Mount Washington inclines.

Evenings out are similarly low-key in both, with bars rather than clubs. Asheville's nights centre on brewery taprooms on the South Slope and downtown, wind down around midnight, and in summer bring the Friday drum circle in Pritchard Park.

Pittsburgh spreads its bars across several distinct neighbourhoods, from Lawrenceville's cocktail bars to the student pub crawls of East Carson Street, and they stay open until 2am. On game nights the bars fill with fans in black and gold.

This is where Asheville pulls furthest ahead. The Blue Ridge Parkway, Pisgah National Forest, Mount Mitchell and the Great Smoky Mountains are all within about an hour. That puts ridge hikes, waterfall walks, mountain biking and rafting into an ordinary day, and the rhododendron bloom and October colour shape the whole year.

Pittsburgh's green space is gentler and closer to home: ravine trails in Frick and Schenley parks, riverside loops and kayaking under the downtown bridges. For gorge rafting and forest hikes, you drive to Ohiopyle in the Laurel Highlands, or set off along the Great Allegheny Passage by bike.

Day trips are about as good from either city, with a short list in both cases. From Asheville they are mostly into the landscape and to small mountain towns such as Brevard and Black Mountain. Cherokee, with its museum and Oconaluftee village, is the most rewarding, and lively Greenville is about an hour away.

Pittsburgh has one outing of real international note, Fallingwater, which pairs with Kentuck Knob for a day of Frank Lloyd Wright. The Flight 93 memorial and Old Economy Village add history, but beyond those the surroundings are mostly farmland.

Pittsburgh is the easier city for children. The North Side alone has the science centre with its submarine, the Children's Museum and the National Aviary. Add the zoo and aquarium, Phipps Conservatory for wet days and Kennywood's classic coasters, and a week fills itself.

Asheville works for families who like the outdoors, with tubing, Sliding Rock, zip lines and the native bears and red wolves at the nature centre. With no zoo, aquarium or theme park nearby and plenty of driving between sights, it suits active older children best.

On foot, Asheville gives you its compact, hilly downtown and the South Slope breweries, with the River Arts District a short ride away. Beyond that the buses are thin. Biltmore, the Parkway, the trailheads and the waterfalls all need a car, on mountain roads that are slow and crowded on autumn weekends.

The T light rail and the two inclines up Mount Washington give Pittsburgh a better start without a car. Its downtown links on foot across the bridges to the North Side and along the river to the Strip, and the T runs underground through the centre. Oakland and Lawrenceville still mean buses or ride-hailing, and the Laurel Highlands need a car.

Asheville gives shoppers a clear reason to browse. The Appalachian craft tradition fills the River Arts District studios and the downtown galleries with pottery, glass, weaving and woodwork, and the Folk Art Center and Grove Arcade add to it.

Pittsburgh's shopping is more about food stalls and local streets: the Strip District, Butler Street's vintage and design shops and Walnut Street in Shadyside, with chain shopping out in the suburban malls. There is no local craft to match Asheville's.

Pittsburgh is the cheaper of the two, and the gap shows most in where you sleep. Asheville is priced as a weekend escape, so a room downtown or near Biltmore costs more than a comparable bed in Pittsburgh, and the difference widens on October weekends when the leaves turn. Asheville also adds a hire car to almost every trip and a costly Biltmore ticket to most. Its best days cost nothing once you are there, though: the trails, the waterfalls and the Parkway are free. A midweek or winter stay closes much of the gap.

Pittsburgh's costs work the other way round. Beds and casual meals are cheaper, and the T and the inclines cover the core without a car. A city stay, though, is spent paying for things, from museum admissions by day to ride-hailing between neighbourhoods at night. Big game and concert weekends push prices up, as leaf season does in Asheville.

Pittsburgh has the fuller formal stage. The symphony plays in the gilded Heinz Hall, and opera, ballet and touring musicals fill the Benedum Center. The city also has a jazz heritage rooted in the Hill District, the world of August Wilson's plays.

Asheville's strength is roots music rather than concert halls. Bluegrass and old-time jams, buskers, free fiddle-and-clogging evenings at Shindig on the Green and the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, running since 1928, make it the place for Appalachian sound.

For rest and recovery, Asheville is well ahead, and the difference is as much in the place as in what you can book. Neither city has a public bathhouse, but Asheville at least has natural mineral water at Hot Springs. The town itself also makes slowing down easy, with cool mountain evenings, quiet inn porches and a pace that asks little of you.

Pittsburgh has no bathing tradition at all, and wellness here mostly means a massage at a hotel or neighbourhood day spa. The calmest hours are among the warm glasshouses of Phipps Conservatory, which are especially welcome on a grey winter day, or on the shaded paths of Frick Park. It makes a pleasant pause in a city break, but not a reason to come.