Austin or New Orleans?

Neither city has a beach, but Austin at least has somewhere good to swim. Barton Springs Pool stays at about 20°C all year, Deep Eddy is a gentler spring-fed pool, and Lake Travis has rocky coves and boat days in summer.

In New Orleans, nobody swims in Lake Pontchartrain or the Mississippi. Unless you drive over an hour to the shallow, brownish Gulf water around Bay St. Louis, swimming means the hotel pool.

Austin does a few things superbly. Brisket smoked over post oak, breakfast tacos and Tex-Mex are mostly eaten from trucks, trailers and counters on the east and south sides, with craft beer alongside. It is a city for casual eating, and outside those specialities the choice is narrower.

New Orleans has the far deeper table. It has a whole Creole and Cajun cuisine, from gumbo and étouffée to po'boys and red beans, and French Quarter dining rooms more than a century old. Crawfish boils come in spring and oysters in the cooler months, and the Sazerac was invented here. Here a long, rich dinner is part of the trip.

Austin's sights are a short list. The pink granite Capitol stands downtown, and a cluster of good museums sits around the university, including the Blanton and the Harry Ransom Center with its Gutenberg Bible. There is little old architecture, and two or three days covers it all.

New Orleans is well ahead here. The French Quarter is an almost complete colonial town of iron balconies and hidden courtyards around Jackson Square and the Cabildo. The Garden District adds antebellum mansions under live oaks, and the above-ground tombs and the National WWII Museum add sights found nowhere else.

Austin goes out hard, helped by its students. There are shot bars on Sixth Street, bungalow bars with big yards on Rainey Street and dive bars and beer gardens on the east side, but bars stop serving at 2am.

New Orleans has no legal closing time and lets you carry a drink along the street, so the night drifts on foot from Frenchmen Street in the Marigny to the corner bars of the Bywater and goes on until dawn. Neither is a club city. Bourbon Street is a louder, rougher version of Sixth Street, so watch for pickpockets.

Austin has the outdoors on its doorstep. The Barton Creek Greenbelt is a wooded canyon with trails and climbing walls, and you can paddle Lady Bird Lake, take in the view from Mount Bonnell and watch the bats fly out at dusk. Enchanted Rock and Pedernales Falls are within two hours.

New Orleans is flat and wet, and its nature is all about water. Boat tours pass alligators in the cypress swamps, the Barataria Preserve has boardwalk trails, and City Park has old oaks and lagoons. Both cities are too hot for much activity in summer, but the humidity of New Orleans makes it harder.

Austin has slightly more to choose from, though almost all of it needs a car. San Antonio has the Alamo and the UNESCO-listed Spanish missions, and Fredericksburg is a German settlers' town reached past wineries and peach orchards. Gruene, New Braunfels and the barbecue town of Lockhart are easy stops too.

From New Orleans the choice is narrower but has real weight. The main outing is the River Road plantations, where the Whitney tells the history of the people enslaved there. Baton Rouge and the quiet Gulf towns of Bay St. Louis and Ocean Springs fill out the list.

Children are about as well served in each city, in different ways. Austin is about water and open space: the lawns and miniature train of Zilker Park, Barton Springs, the Thinkery and the bat flight. The theme parks and waterparks are an hour or so away.

New Orleans has more ready-made attractions inside the city: Audubon Zoo, the riverfront aquarium, City Park's carousel and storybook garden, streetcar rides and the Mardi Gras parades on St. Charles Avenue. The catch is that parents need to keep children away from Bourbon Street and some areas after dark.

Austin is a car city. Only downtown and the Rainey Street area are comfortable on foot, and buses and a single commuter rail line do little for visitors. For the lakes, the swimming holes and every day trip you will need a hire car, and you will meet heavy traffic on the main highway.

New Orleans is far easier without a car. The French Quarter, the Marigny and the Warehouse District sit close together on flat ground, and the historic St. Charles streetcar runs out to the Garden District, slowly but pleasantly. Ride-hailing covers the airport and the swamps.

New Orleans has the better browsing. Royal Street has its antique dealers and galleries and Magazine Street has miles of independent boutiques, while the French Market sells Carnival masks and hot sauces. Austin's equivalent is South Congress, which is good for vintage, cowboy boots and pearl-snap shirts but shorter. Neither suits a designer-label trip, and Austin's luxury brands are in a mall on the northern edge of the city.

Neither city is cheap, but New Orleans works out somewhat easier, largely because you can do without a car. In Austin, car hire and parking come on top of downtown hotel rates, which climb sharply in the big music, film and motor racing weeks.

In New Orleans, rooms are the main cost and rise at Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. Staying along the streetcar lines rather than in the Quarter helps. Both cities feed you cheaply, with tacos and food trucks in Austin and po'boys and red beans in New Orleans.

Live music is a reason to visit either city, and the difference is in the sound. Austin's clubs on Red River and Sixth Street and its honky-tonks offer rock, indie, blues and Texas country, with couples two-stepping. Its festival weeks bring hundreds of bands, and the Long Center gives it a slightly fuller season of symphony, opera and ballet.

New Orleans plays jazz in the city where jazz was born. Brass bands, funk and zydeco fill Frenchmen Street, musicians play on Royal Street, and second-line parades wind through the neighbourhoods on Sundays.

Austin is the better place to unwind. It has a strong yoga and fitness culture, shaded patios and destination spa resorts on Lake Austin and in the Hill Country, though no thermal baths or hammams.

New Orleans has only hotel day spas and a few studios, and its French Quarter nights are anything but restful. What calm it offers comes from slow pleasures: a morning in a courtyard guesthouse, a streetcar ride under the oaks or an afternoon in City Park.