Austin or Memphis?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Austin gives you real places to swim. Barton Springs and Deep Eddy are spring-fed pools that stay cool all summer, and Lake Travis has coves and boat days on warm water.

Memphis has nothing like this. Nobody swims in the Mississippi, so cooling off means a hotel pool, a splash pad or a drive out to a lake in the countryside.

Both are serious barbecue cities, but they smoke different meat. Austin's is beef brisket, sliced to order on butcher paper, and Memphis's is pork, as dry-rubbed ribs or pulled shoulder in a sandwich with slaw. Austin edges ahead on range: breakfast tacos, Tex-Mex, food-truck lots, a strong craft beer scene and more ambitious kitchens in East Austin and South Congress.

Memphis fills out its table with soul cooking instead: fried chicken, catfish, greens and Delta-style tamales, plus local oddities like barbecue spaghetti. Its modern restaurants are mostly a small cluster in Cooper-Young and Midtown, so it suits someone who wants to eat heavy, regional food.

Memphis has the sights that people travel for. Elvis's Graceland, the tiny Sun Studio and the Stax museum trace American popular music back to its roots. The National Civil Rights Museum, built around the motel where Martin Luther King Jr was shot, is one of the most moving museums in the country.

Austin has a solid but smaller list. There is the pink granite Capitol, and around the university campus the Blanton, the Bullock museum, the LBJ Library and the Harry Ransom Center with its Gutenberg Bible. Neither city has much historic townscape to wander, but Memphis's museums carry far more weight.

Austin has more nights out to choose from. Sixth Street is the loud strip, Rainey Street turns old bungalows into bars with yards, and the east side has the dive bars, mezcal bars and beer gardens locals prefer, all helped by a big student crowd.

Memphis focuses on Beale Street, where you can carry a drink from bar to bar on a few blocks. It is fun but shallow, and the gentler bars of Overton Square and Cooper-Young are a car ride away. Downtown empties early once you leave those pockets.

Austin sits on the edge of the limestone Hill Country, and that makes a clear difference. Within the city you can hike and climb in the wooded Greenbelt canyon, paddle Lady Bird Lake and watch the bats leave the Congress Avenue Bridge at dusk. Granite domes and waterfalls are within about two hours.

Memphis is flat Mississippi floodplain, and the river is its main sight: you can walk across it on the Big River Crossing or watch the sunset from the bluffs. Shelby Farms Park, with its bison herd and lakes, is the best outing, and it is pleasant but gentler.

Austin has the wider choice of day trips. San Antonio has the Alamo and its UNESCO-listed Spanish missions, and Fredericksburg's German main street and wineries, Gruene and the small Hill Country towns make easy, varied outings.

From Memphis, the drive south down Highway 61 into the Delta is a real pilgrimage for blues fans, taking in Clarksdale's juke joints and the Blues Trail markers. Faulkner's Oxford, Tupelo and Shiloh add literature and history, but the towns are small, and the list mainly appeals to people who care about music and history. From either city you need a car.

Austin is easier with children. Zilker Park alone gives you lawns, a miniature train and Barton Springs, and there are the Thinkery, the bat flight at dusk, and theme parks and waterparks about an hour away.

Memphis has one excellent anchor in its zoo in Overton Park, plus the Pink Palace planetarium and Shelby Farms. Its headline music and civil rights museums suit teenagers better than young children, and its sticky summers leave families few water-based escapes.

Both cities are built for the car, and you will want one in either. The difference is in what you can do without one. In Austin, the trail around Lady Bird Lake and rental bikes and scooters link downtown, Rainey Street, South Congress and the east side.

Memphis's walkable core is downtown, with Beale Street, the riverfront and the Civil Rights Museum close together and heritage trolleys on Main Street. Graceland, Midtown and Shelby Farms all mean a car or a ride-hail.

Austin gives you a street worth browsing. South Congress has independent boutiques, vintage clothing and cowboy boots, and western wear is the souvenir worth buying.

Memphis has no central shopping street at all. Its finds are musical, mainly vintage vinyl and blues or Elvis memorabilia, with small boutiques on Broad Avenue and in Cooper-Young. Anything mainstream means driving to the suburban malls.

Memphis is the cheaper of the two, mainly because hotels outside the busiest weekends cost noticeably less than Austin's downtown rooms. Graceland and the other music sights charge full admission, though.

Austin's rooms are priced like those of a major American city and rise sharply in the big festival and racing weeks. Car hire, parking, tips and tax add up in both cities. Austin makes some of it back with cheap tacos and free sights like the Capitol, the trails and the bat flight.

Both are music cities with live sets every night, but Austin has more of it and more variety. Red River and Sixth Street clubs, South Congress bars and honky-tonks put on several acts an evening, from indie and blues to Texas country and conjunto, often with no cover.

Memphis plays its own heritage: house bands on Beale Street play blues and soul from the afternoon, and there are free summer concerts at the Levitt Shell, where Elvis played early on. The Orpheum's touring Broadway shows and a respected ballet company give it a slightly fuller stage programme than Austin's modest classical season.

Austin is the better place to unwind. It has a strong yoga culture, shaded patios and parkland, and destination spa resorts on Lake Austin and in the Hill Country offer quiet grounds with water views.

Memphis is a trip of music, barbecue and late nights, and spa time means a hotel or a suburban day spa. Its calmest hours are outdoors: an early walk in Overton Park, or an evening on the bluffs above the river.