Asheville or St. Louis?

Neither city is a beach destination, and you should not choose either for sand and sea. Asheville at least has somewhere to get wet in summer: cold pools under waterfalls, the natural rock slide at Sliding Rock, tubing on the French Broad and a small sandy shore on Lake Lure. In St. Louis the rivers are working waterways with strong currents, so swimming means a pool or a long drive to an Ozark lake.

Asheville is the more rewarding place to eat and drink, and its beer is the bigger draw. Taprooms fill downtown, the South Slope and West Asheville, and chef-driven kitchens cook with Appalachian trout, ramps, heirloom beans and sorghum. Its weakness is a thin international range and weekend tables that book out.

St. Louis eats more cheaply and has its own local habits: toasted ravioli, Provel-topped cracker-crust pizza, gooey butter cake and rib barbecue. The Hill's trattorias and the Bosnian grills along South Grand give it more variety than Asheville, and the Soulard Market and the red-brick Anheuser-Busch brewery add history. It feels more like local comfort food than a reason to visit.

The sightseeing is about even in weight, but the two cities offer different kinds of sights. Asheville's centrepiece is a single great house: the Biltmore Estate, with its Olmsted gardens, takes a full day. After that comes a compact Art Deco downtown with the domed City Hall and the Grove Arcade.

St. Louis spreads its interest more widely and adds more museums. The Gateway Arch and its museum of westward expansion, the Old Courthouse of the Dred Scott case, and the free art and history museums in Forest Park sit alongside the mosaics of the Cathedral Basilica and the Wainwright Building, an early skyscraper.

Neither is a late-night city, and both suit a sociable evening rather than clubbing until dawn. Asheville keeps its taprooms, cocktail bars and dives within walking distance downtown and on the South Slope, and most places close around midnight. St. Louis has more variety but scatters it, with blues taverns in Soulard, dance bars on Washington Avenue, the LGBTQ+ strip on the Grove and casinos open late, so expect taxis between them.

Here the gap is widest, and it is Asheville's main reason to visit. The Blue Ridge Parkway runs past the city, Pisgah National Forest starts just south, Mount Mitchell and the Great Smoky Mountains are each about an hour away, and the Appalachian Trail passes close by. Add mountain biking, whitewater rivers, spring rhododendron and the October colour.

St. Louis has Forest Park within the city and gentle Ozark country beyond it, with river bluffs and caves at Castlewood and Meramec, rocky pools at Johnson's Shut-Ins and bald eagles near Alton in winter. It makes for good outings, but the countryside is rolling rather than mountainous.

The two are fairly even, but St. Louis has more history within reach. Cahokia Mounds, the UNESCO-listed remains of a great pre-Columbian city, is only twenty minutes away. Further out are French colonial Ste. Genevieve, the German wine towns of Hermann and Augusta, Twain's Hannibal and Lincoln's Springfield.

From Asheville, most outings are into the landscape itself, with small stops along the way: Brevard's waterfall country, Carl Sandburg's home at Flat Rock, and Cherokee with its museum and Oconaluftee village. Greenville is the only sizeable town nearby.

St. Louis is the easier choice with children. The City Museum's tunnels and rooftop climbs are unlike anything in Asheville, and the zoo and Science Center in Forest Park cost nothing. The Magic House, a theme park forty minutes away and a ballgame at Busch Stadium round out the week.

Asheville rewards outdoor families instead, with bears and red wolves at the Nature Center, Sliding Rock, zip lines and the Biltmore farmyard. With no zoo or theme park in town, and Dollywood two hours away, children who want rides will be happier in St. Louis.

You will want a car in both. Asheville's compact, hilly downtown and the River Arts District are fine on foot, but Biltmore, the Parkway and the trailheads mean slow mountain driving, which is heavy on October weekends. St. Louis at least has the MetroLink line linking the airport, Forest Park and downtown, and its roads are flat and uncongested, though the Hill, Soulard and South Grand still need a car or taxi.

Asheville is the better place to shop, as long as you want something handmade. Its galleries and River Arts District studios sell Appalachian pottery, glass, weaving and woodwork, the Folk Art Center showcases the regional craft guild, and the Grove Arcade holds independent boutiques.

St. Louis offers an afternoon of browsing rather than a craft tradition: antiques and vintage on Cherokee Street, student shops on the Delmar Loop and boutiques in the Central West End, with the big brands out in suburban malls.

St. Louis is the cheaper of the two. Its hotels cost less than those of a popular mountain weekend escape, and the zoo, art museum, history museum and science centre are all free. Eating barbecue or at the South Grand grills is easy on the wallet.

Asheville's inns charge more, especially on autumn leaf weekends, and Biltmore is an expensive day out. Its saving grace is that trails, waterfalls and the Parkway cost nothing, and a midweek or winter stay brings prices down.

St. Louis has the stronger stage, with a long-admired symphony in the ornate Powell Hall and Broadway tours at the Fabulous Fox. In summer there are open-air musicals at the Muny and an early-summer opera festival. The city's ties to Chuck Berry and W.C. Handy, and its blues bars, keep live music going through the week.

Asheville's strength is folk music. It has bluegrass and old-time jams, buskers downtown, Shindig on the Green and the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, held since 1928. Its formal concerts and theatre are modest by comparison.

Asheville is far better suited to a restful trip. Its past as a mountain health retreat lives on in yoga studios, retreats and large resort spas, and Hot Springs, forty minutes away, has riverside tubs filled with mineral water. Cool evenings and quiet inn porches help too.

St. Louis has only ordinary day spas in Clayton and the Central West End. For calm, the best it offers is a slow morning in the Missouri Botanical Garden's Japanese garden.