Atlanta or Detroit?

Neither city is a place for beach life, but Detroit at least has sand within reach. Belle Isle has a small swimming beach right in the river, and Lake St. Clair Metropark offers a long, shallow, calm stretch of shore about forty minutes out, good for a summer afternoon from July to early September.

Atlanta is far from any coast, so swimming means a drive to Lake Lanier or Lake Allatoona for a family lake day, or simply the hotel pool.

Atlanta has the broader and deeper table. Its Southern cooking, from meat-and-three cafeterias to west-side soul food kitchens and serious Sunday brunch, is eaten in its home region, and Buford Highway's strip malls add Korean, Vietnamese and Ethiopian cooking of real authenticity.

Detroit's strength is a handful of distinctive local dishes, the chilli-smothered Coney dog and square Detroit-style pizza, plus the Arab American bakeries and grills of Dearborn and Saturdays at Eastern Market. In both cities the best meals often need a car.

Atlanta's sightseeing is narrower but carries great weight. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue, together with the civil rights centre downtown, make it essential for that story, and the High Museum anchors Midtown. Little old townscape survived the fire of 1864, so two or three days cover the city.

Detroit has more to see, and over a wider range. The Detroit Institute of Arts, with Diego Rivera's industry murals filling a courtyard, is a museum of national standing, and a day at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village adds American industry and everyday history. The architecture is worth seeing too: the Art Deco banking hall of the Guardian Building downtown and the gilded Fisher Building further north in New Center.

Atlanta has the bigger and more varied night out. Its hip-hop and trap clubs carry a national name, Edgewood Avenue packs dive bars and small dance floors together, Midtown anchors a large LGBTQ scene and Buckhead does dressy bottle service.

Detroit's nights are smaller and more specialised: techno in warehouses and after-hours rooms where the music comes first, plus cocktail bars and taprooms in Corktown and Midtown. Weeknights there are quiet, and in both cities moving between districts means a taxi.

Atlanta gives far more to do outside. Its hardwood canopy shades the city, the granite dome of Stone Mountain and the Chattahoochee's wooded bluffs are close, and the Blue Ridge foothills with Amicalola Falls lie about two hours north.

Detroit is flat, and its outdoors centre on water: Olmsted's Belle Isle, the RiverWalk, kayaking and sailing on Lake St. Clair, and wetland trails in the metroparks. Autumn colour is good, but long cold winters cut the season short.

Atlanta has a slightly better spread of outings. Athens brings college-town music history, Dahlonega and Madison offer gold-rush and antebellum streets, and Chattanooga's riverfront and Lookout Mountain are about two hours away.

Detroit's best option is closer: leafy Ann Arbor is under an hour west, and Toledo's fine art museum and the Bavarian-style town of Frankenmuth also make easy drives. Its one unusual extra is a hop across the river to Windsor in Canada, passport in hand.

Atlanta is the stronger choice with children. The Georgia Aquarium's whale sharks and belugas, Zoo Atlanta's gorillas, Fernbank's dinosaur skeletons and the Center for Puppetry Arts fill several days, with Six Flags and the Stone Mountain cable car on the edges.

Detroit has fine single draws, the zoo's polar bear tunnel and Greenfield Village's steam trains and horse-drawn rides, but fewer of them. Summer suits Detroit with children, while in Atlanta spring and autumn are easier than the sticky heat.

Both cities were built for the car, and most visitors end up driving or using ride-hailing. The difference is in what transit does cover. Atlanta's MARTA rail runs straight from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead, which helps on arrival and along that one corridor.

Detroit's centre is more compact and walkable, with the People Mover looping downtown and the QLine streetcar running up Woodward to the museum district, but nothing reaches Dearborn or the zoo easily.

Atlanta has more to browse, chiefly the two big Buckhead malls on Peachtree Road with their luxury labels, the nearby boutiques of Buckhead Village and the vintage and record shops of Little Five Points.

Detroit's shopping is smaller and more local in character: Detroit-made watches, leather goods and prints in Midtown and Corktown, and crafts at Eastern Market on market days. For big brands, Detroiters drive to a suburban mall.

Detroit is the easier city on the budget. Hotel rooms are cheaper, everyday meals like Coney dogs, pizza and Dearborn's Middle Eastern food cost little, and the streetcar and People Mover are cheap ways to cover the centre.

Atlanta is reasonable next to the coasts, and its civil rights sites are free, but the big family attractions charge heavily. In both cities, tips, sales tax and a hire car add up.

The two are close here, and they even share a 1920s Fox Theatre movie palace. Atlanta leans towards stage and big arenas: the Alliance Theatre's new work, full opera and ballet seasons, and a steady run of major hip-hop, R&B and gospel tours.

Detroit is more of a club and band town, with the symphony in its admired Orchestra Hall, deep-rooted jazz rooms, the free Detroit Jazz Festival on Labor Day weekend and live soul and rock most nights, though its local theatre is thinner.

Atlanta has the one genuine draw: the large Korean bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs, with hot and cold pools, sauna rooms and lounging halls, some open round the clock. Detroit has no bathing tradition at all, so unwinding comes down to a hotel spa or a slow walk along the RiverWalk or Belle Isle.