Austin or Santa Fe?

Neither city is near the sea, so this comes down to swimming. Austin still does that far better. Barton Springs Pool in Zilker Park stays cool all year, Deep Eddy is a gentler spring-fed pool, and Lake Travis offers boat days and coves on warm summer water.

In Santa Fe a swim is an outing, either to Abiquiu Lake about an hour north or a float down the Rio Grande. For most visitors it means the hotel pool.

Both cities eat best when you stick to their own regional cooking. Austin's is about smoke and tortillas: post-oak brisket sold by weight, breakfast tacos from trailers, Tex-Mex and frozen margaritas, with food trucks in beer gardens and strong craft beer. Most of it is casual.

Santa Fe's is about chile, red or green, over carne adovada, posole and blue corn, served in old adobe dining rooms near the Plaza. It also has a more polished fine-dining tier than you would expect in a town its size. Austin is better for grazing outdoors. Santa Fe is better for a sit-down dinner and a morning at the Railyard farmers' market.

Here Santa Fe is the richer stop, because the town itself is the sight. There are low adobe streets around the Plaza, the Palace of the Governors and the Loretto Chapel's spiral staircase. Beyond them are the folk art and Native American museums on Museum Hill, the O'Keeffe museum and the gallery houses of Canyon Road.

Austin has a good cluster of museums by the University of Texas, including the Blanton and the Harry Ransom Center with its Gutenberg Bible, and a granite Capitol worth touring. Old architecture is scarce, though, and the sights are a pleasant extra rather than the reason to go.

In Austin, going out is a reason to come rather than an extra. Sixth Street has the crowds and shot bars, and Rainey Street's bungalow yards draw a slightly older set. The east side has the dive bars, mezcal bars and beer gardens locals prefer. Only clubbing is thin, and bars stop serving at 2am.

Santa Fe winds down after dinner. Expect a sunset margarita on a rooftop facing the Jemez Mountains or a Railyard brewery, with the streets quiet well before midnight.

Santa Fe has much the bigger landscape. Trails leave town into piñon foothills, and the ski road climbs into aspen and spruce forest below the Pecos Wilderness, where peaks rise above 3,600m. Further out lie Valles Caldera with its elk, the Rio Grande Gorge and the red cliffs around Abiquiu.

Austin's outdoors is gentler and starts in town. You can walk the Barton Creek Greenbelt canyon, paddle Lady Bird Lake, take in the view from Mount Bonnell and watch the bats leave the Congress Avenue Bridge at dusk. Enchanted Rock and Pedernales Falls are a drive away, but there are no mountains.

Santa Fe has more to drive to, and much of it is unlike anywhere else in the country. The High Road runs through Chimayo and Truchas to Taos Pueblo, and there are the cliff dwellings of Bandelier, Los Alamos, the pueblo and mission at Pecos, Ghost Ranch and the old mining villages on the Turquoise Trail. You can even reach Albuquerque's Old Town by train.

From Austin, the best outing is San Antonio, for the Alamo and its UNESCO-listed Spanish missions. Then come the German-founded town of Fredericksburg, Gruene and Lockhart's barbecue, after which the list runs short.

Austin is the easier city with children because it is built around parks and water. Zilker Park has the miniature train and the lawns, and there is the Thinkery and the IMAX at the Bullock museum. Theme parks and waterparks are about an hour away near San Antonio and New Braunfels, though summer days have to be planned around the heat.

Santa Fe suits older children who like hiking and history, with Bandelier's ladders, the children's museum and ski lessons in winter. Galleries and long dinners test younger ones, and the 2,100m altitude can tire them for the first day or two.

Neither city is easy without a car, but Santa Fe's centre is the more walkable. The Plaza, the cathedral, Canyon Road and the Railyard lie within about twenty minutes of each other on foot, though uphill stretches feel harder at altitude.

Austin's walkable patches are downtown and Rainey Street. Swimming spots and many good places to eat are spread out, buses are the main public option and traffic on the main highway is heavy at peak hours. For day trips, hire a car in either city.

Santa Fe is the better place to buy something made by hand. Native American artists sell silver, turquoise and pottery under the Palace portal, Canyon Road and the Railyard are packed with galleries, and the summer Indian, Spanish and folk art markets draw collectors from far away.

Austin overlaps on cowboy boots and Western wear, and South Congress and the east side add vintage clothing and independent boutiques. Neither city is for fashion, and Austin's luxury brands sit in a mall on its northern edge.

Both are expensive for what they are, and in both a hire car adds to the bill. Austin's hotels are priced like any major American city's and climb steeply in the big event weeks. Its breakfast tacos, food trucks and Tex-Mex keep everyday meals reasonable, though.

Santa Fe has less cheap eating, and its restaurants and galleries are priced for a well-off crowd. Rooms out on Cerrillos Road cost less than those near the Plaza. Hiking and browsing are free in both.

Austin has live music every night of the year. Clubs on Red River and Sixth Street and honky-tonks full of two-steppers put on blues, indie, Texas country and conjunto, often with no cover. Its formal season at the Long Center is modest.

Santa Fe works the other way round. Its pride is the Santa Fe Opera, staged as the sun sets over the desert in an open-sided theatre north of town, alongside a summer chamber festival and a long flamenco tradition. Outside midsummer its calendar is small, so choose Austin for bands in any month and time a Santa Fe trip for summer if opera is the point.

Santa Fe is the better place to switch off. It has outdoor soaking tubs among the pines on the ski road and the old mineral springs at Ojo Caliente about an hour north. There are also more spas and healers than its size suggests, and evenings end early in quiet adobe courtyards.

Austin offers yoga, day spas and resort spas by Lake Austin and in the Hill Country, plus a relaxed pace away from the bar streets. It has no hot springs or soaking places at all.