Atlanta or Nashville?

Neither city has a beach, and both send swimmers to reservoirs on the edge of town. Atlanta's Lake Lanier is about an hour away and has proper sandy swimming areas, while Nashville's Percy Priest and Old Hickory are closer but culturally more about pontoon boats than sand. In either case it is a summer afternoon, not a reason to come.

Both cities serve the full Southern canon of meat-and-three cafeterias, barbecue and mac and cheese, but Atlanta has the wider range. Its soul food kitchens and Sunday brunch sit alongside Buford Highway, a long strip of Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese and Ethiopian cooking that Nashville cannot match in depth.

Nashville's trump card is hot chicken, a dish you can only really eat here, plus Tennessee whiskey and a smaller run of Kurdish and Vietnamese places along Nolensville Pike. Away from East Nashville and Germantown, though, downtown leans on bar food.

These are close, but the sightseeing is of a different kind. Atlanta's weight lies in civil rights history: King's birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and the High Museum as the region's main art collection.

Nashville's sights are almost all about music, led by the Country Music Hall of Fame and a daytime tour of the Ryman. Beyond that, the Parthenon replica, the Frist in its Art Deco post office and the Hermitage give a couple of days that feel more themed than Atlanta's.

Both cities go out hard, but in very different ways. Atlanta's night is about clubs and DJs, with hip-hop rooms of national fame, small dance floors on Edgewood Avenue, a large LGBTQ scene in Midtown and dressier lounges in Buckhead, each a ride apart.

Nashville is the opposite: few dance clubs, but Lower Broadway is one walkable strip of honky-tonks with a live band on every floor, busy with hen and stag groups until the small hours. East Nashville offers quieter dive bars when Broadway is too much.

Atlanta has the better outdoors. Within half an hour you can climb the granite dome of Stone Mountain or float the Chattahoochee, and in about two hours you reach the Blue Ridge foothills, Amicalola Falls and the southern end of the Appalachian Trail.

Nashville's country is gentler: wooded hills, the easy trails of Radnor Lake and the Warner Parks, canoeing on the Harpeth and cycling on the Natchez Trace Parkway. It is pleasant walking rather than real hiking.

Both offer small towns and history rather than major destinations, and both share Chattanooga at about two hours. From Atlanta the options run to the college town of Athens, gold-rush Dahlonega among the vineyards, and Madison's pre-Civil War houses. Nashville has the closer star in Franklin, only half an hour away with its Main Street and battlefields, plus the whiskey distilleries around Lynchburg.

Atlanta is much the stronger family city. The Georgia Aquarium with its whale sharks and belugas, Zoo Atlanta's gorillas, Fernbank's dinosaurs and Six Flags give several full days for children, and hotels tend to be roomy.

Nashville has a good zoo, the Adventure Science Center and the Lane Motor Museum, enough for a couple of days. Its centre, though, is built for adult drinking, so families end up planning around downtown rather than staying in it.

Atlanta's one real help is MARTA's rail line, which links the airport, downtown, Midtown and Buckhead. A visitor based along it can reach the main museums and Piedmont Park without driving, and the BeltLine's Eastside Trail joins a few neighbourhoods on foot or by bike.

Nashville has no metro or tram, but its downtown is compact: Broadway, the Ryman, the Hall of Fame and the Gulch are all a short walk apart, with the pedestrian bridge across the river. Anything further out, from the Opry to East Nashville, means a car or a ride, just as it does across most of Atlanta.

Atlanta has the wider range, centred on the big Buckhead malls along Peachtree Road with their department stores and luxury labels, plus vintage and records in Little Five Points. Nashville's shopping is narrower but more distinctive: cowboy boots and rhinestone shirts on Broadway, some of the best guitar shopping anywhere, and Hatch Show Print's letterpress posters as a souvenir Atlanta cannot offer.

Atlanta is the easier city on the wallet, mainly because its hotels cost noticeably less, especially away from Buckhead. Buford Highway's restaurants are fair value and the civil rights sites are free, though car hire and the big attractions' entry charges add up.

Nashville's downtown hotels are expensive, and weekend group demand pushes them higher. Its saving grace is that the music on Broadway carries no cover charge, and staying midweek or outside downtown helps a lot.

This is Nashville's great strength. The Grand Ole Opry several nights a week, touring acts at the Ryman, bands in every honky-tonk from late morning and intimate songwriter nights make live music hard to avoid. The Schermerhorn adds a fine symphony hall.

Atlanta has a solid all-round scene, with its symphony and the Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff Arts Center, opera, ballet and Broadway tours at the Fox, plus major hip-hop and R&B tours. It is a good evening out, but not a reason in itself to travel.

Neither is a place to unwind, but Atlanta has the more interesting option: big Korean-style bathhouses in the northeastern suburbs, with hot and cold pools, sauna rooms and lounging halls. Nashville has only hotel and day spas, and its centre runs on noise and late nights, so a restful stay means basing yourself in leafy Belmont or Hillsboro.