Atlanta or Milwaukee?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Milwaukee at least has a shoreline. Bradford Beach lies right in town below the East Side bluffs, with volleyball courts and cabanas. In late summer Lake Michigan is warm enough for a quick, bracing swim, as long as an offshore wind hasn't turned it cold overnight.

Atlanta has no coast within a day's reach. The nearest swimming is at Lake Lanier or Lake Allatoona, about an hour's drive away. The water there is much warmer, but the outing is a family day at a lake rather than a beach on your doorstep.

Atlanta eats better and more widely. Its Southern cooking ranges from meat-and-three cafeterias to west-side soul food and serious Sunday brunch. Buford Highway adds a second food scene of its own, where Korean, Vietnamese, Ethiopian and Mexican cooks feed their own communities, and chef-led restaurants in Inman Park and the Westside add depth.

Milwaukee's food is narrower and more homely: the Friday fish fry, bratwurst, cheese curds, frozen custard and a supper club evening with a brandy old fashioned. Its real strength is beer, from the old brewery buildings to the taprooms of Walker's Point, while fine dining is thin.

The two are close in depth, and each fills two or three days, but they offer different things. Atlanta's sights carry historical weight: the King birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue and the civil rights centre downtown, with the High Museum and the Carter library alongside.

Milwaukee is more about architecture and its brewing-era past. The Calatrava pavilion of its lakefront art museum, the Harley-Davidson Museum, the Pabst Mansion and the cream-brick warehouses of the Third Ward give it an older townscape to wander, which Atlanta, burned in 1864, largely lacks.

Atlanta's nights are bigger and louder. Its clubs are the home ground of Southern hip-hop and trap, and Edgewood Avenue packs dive bars and small dance floors together. Midtown has one of the South's largest LGBTQ scenes, and Buckhead does bottle service. The drawback is that you need a ride to get from one area to the next.

Milwaukee is a tavern town rather than a club town. The real night out is the corner bar with a pool table and its regulars, while Brady Street and Walker's Point add cocktails and craft beer. Summer patios and beer gardens make for its liveliest weeks.

Atlanta reaches further into real landscape. Stone Mountain's granite dome and the wooded Chattahoochee bluffs are close by. About two hours north are the Blue Ridge foothills, Amicalola Falls and the southern end of the Appalachian Trail.

Milwaukee's outdoors centre on the lake: Olmsted's Lake Park, flat cycling on the Oak Leaf Trail and kayaking through downtown. The glacial hills of the Kettle Moraine are the main escape inland. They're gentle rather than dramatic, and best visited between May and October.

Milwaukee wins largely because of one neighbour. Chicago is about an hour and a half away by train, with no car needed. Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings in Racine, the stone mills of Cedarburg, Kohler and the lakeside capital, Madison, fill other days.

From Atlanta, every outing means driving. Athens, Dahlonega's gold-rush square and the antebellum houses of Madison, Georgia, are pleasant, and Chattanooga makes a longer day. Savannah is too far for a return trip in one day.

Atlanta has more to keep children busy. There are the whale sharks and belugas of the Georgia Aquarium, Fernbank's dinosaurs, Zoo Atlanta's gorillas, the Center for Puppetry Arts and, for older children, Six Flags. The price is long drives and a hot summer.

Milwaukee is smaller but calmer with children. It has a well-regarded county zoo, Discovery World on the lakefront and the Mitchell Park Domes for cold days. In summer, the beach, a baseball game and the lakeside festivals make for easy family days.

Both cities are built for cars, but Milwaukee's centre is easier on foot. Downtown, the Third Ward and the lakefront are close together, linked by the Riverwalk and the short Hop streetcar line, and parking is simple elsewhere.

Atlanta does have rail. MARTA works well on the one corridor from the airport through downtown and Midtown to Buckhead. Off that line, the sprawl, heavy motorway traffic and disappearing pavements make a car or ride-hailing almost unavoidable.

Atlanta is the place for brands. The two malls facing each other on Peachtree Road and the designer shops of Buckhead Village cover luxury labels and department stores, and Little Five Points adds vintage clothing and records.

Milwaukee keeps things small and independent: boutiques and design shops in the Third Ward warehouses, vintage on Brady Street, and Wisconsin cheese and sausage from the Public Market. Neither city has a local craft, but Milwaukee's souvenirs, from Harley gear to local beer, are more particular to the place.

By American standards both are fairly reasonable. Hotels cost well below the coasts, and both have the usual extras of tax, tips and car hire. The difference is where you save. In Atlanta, the savings are the Buford Highway restaurants and the free civil rights sites, while the big family attractions are expensive.

In Milwaukee, the cheap pleasures are tavern beer, fish fries, and a lakefront and festival programme that costs little. Big summer weekends push hotel rates up sharply, though.

Atlanta has the broader programme. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Alliance Theatre share the Woodruff Arts Center, and the Fox Theatre hosts touring Broadway shows. As a centre of hip-hop, R&B and gospel, the city draws major tours all year, with the Tabernacle and the small rooms of East Atlanta Village below them.

Milwaukee has a full set of companies for its size, from the Florentine Opera to the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and the 1895 Pabst Theater is a fine place to see a band. Its highlight is Summerfest on the lakefront, so it's at its best in summer.

Neither city is a place to unwind, but Atlanta has the more interesting option. Large Korean bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs, about half an hour out, offer hot and cold pools and sauna rooms, and Buckhead and Midtown have hotel spas.

Milwaukee has no bathing tradition. Rest here means its slower pace and a walk along the lakefront or the Riverwalk, and for a proper spa day you drive an hour north to Kohler.