Baltimore or Louisville?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Baltimore at least has one within reach. Sandy Point State Park is about forty minutes away on the Chesapeake and has a sandy strip with warm summer water, although sea nettles and closures after heavy rain limit it. The Atlantic coast is a separate trip.

Louisville lies far inland on a barge-heavy Ohio River, so swimming there means a pool or a drive to a reservoir lake in the Kentucky countryside.

The two eat equally well, but around entirely different staples. Baltimore's table is built on the blue crab, steamed and hammered open on brown paper in summer or pressed into lump-meat cakes all year. Old market halls such as Lexington Market and the red-sauce kitchens of Little Italy fill out the picture.

Louisville is built around bourbon rather than seafood, with Whiskey Row and its tasting rooms, then rich Southern plates such as the hot brown and burgoo, and the better kitchens in NuLu and the Highlands. The choice comes down to shellfish or whisky.

Baltimore gives a visitor more to see. It has two free art museums, one of them holding a remarkable body of Matisse, along with Fort McHenry, the B&O roundhouse and the historic ships of the Inner Harbor. Whole neighbourhoods such as Fells Point and Mount Vernon are worth walking for their own sake.

Louisville's sights are narrower and tied to what made it famous: Churchill Downs, the Muhammad Ali Center and the Slugger museum on Whiskey Row. The Victorian mansions of Old Louisville are its best street-level heritage, and the Speed Art Museum is solid rather than exceptional.

Both are bar towns with little clubbing, so the difference is in the setting. Baltimore's nights centre on old taverns around the cobbled waterfront square of Fells Point and the rooftops of Federal Hill, which are loudest after Orioles and Ravens games, and last call is at 2am.

Louisville spreads out along the dives and patios of Bardstown Road and the bourbon bars of NuLu, with Fourth Street Live for groups. Some of its bars are licensed to stay open very late, so a night there can run on after Baltimore has closed.

Neither has dramatic scenery, so the choice is between water and woodland. Baltimore looks to the Chesapeake, with kayaking on the harbour, sailing out of Annapolis and ospreys and eagles in the marshes, plus the river gorges of Patapsco Valley on the city's edge.

Louisville's strength is its Olmsted parks inside the city, Cherokee and Iroquois, along with the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio. Mammoth Cave, about an hour and a half away, is a sight Baltimore has nothing to match.

Day trips are where Baltimore pulls well clear. Washington's Smithsonian museums and Philadelphia's Independence Hall are each about an hour away by train, and Annapolis, Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry are short drives, so a stay here can take in much of early American history.

Louisville's outings are fewer and built around themes: the distilleries around Bardstown, the horse farms and Keeneland at Lexington, Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace. They are rewarding, but almost all of them need a car, and someone sober to drive it.

Both cities work well with children, in different ways. Baltimore keeps its family day around the Inner Harbor, where the National Aquarium, the Maryland Science Center and Port Discovery are a short walk apart and the historic ships fill the gaps.

Louisville offers more thrills, with the roller coasters and water park at Kentucky Kingdom, underground ziplines in the Mega Cavern and splash areas by the river. These are scattered around the city, though, and you need a car to get between them.

Baltimore is the easier city without a car. Its harbour neighbourhoods are linked by a waterfront promenade and by water taxi, a metro and a light rail line reach the airport and Penn Station, and fast trains run to Washington and Philadelphia.

Louisville has no rail transit and only a thin bus network. Downtown and NuLu are walkable, but Churchill Downs, the Highlands and the big parks are all a drive away. Traffic is light, so driving is easy.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and both offer the same kind of local browsing. Baltimore's best strip is 36th Street in Hampden, with its kitsch and vintage, plus antiques in Fells Point and Old Bay souvenirs from the market halls.

Louisville's equivalents are the design shops of NuLu and the records and vintage of Bardstown Road. The thing most worth carrying home is a bottle of bourbon that is rarely sold elsewhere.

Costs are much the same in both: cheaper than the big coastal cities, but with the usual American tax, tips and taxi fares added. Baltimore saves you money through free entry to its two main art museums and hotels that are cheaper than those in nearby Washington.

Louisville's savings come from moderate hotel rates and free parks and riverfront. Against that, it charges admission at its museums and distilleries, a car or ride-hailing adds to every day, and during Derby week room rates rise several times over.

The two are close, with different strengths. Baltimore has the Baltimore Symphony at the Meyerhoff and the Peabody Institute, whose many free concerts are a real bonus. It also has an indie and punk club circuit in Station North and a long jazz history on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Louisville has resident opera and ballet at the Kentucky Center and the new American plays of Actors Theatre. Summer brings outdoor concerts and Shakespeare in the parks, and its bars lean towards bluegrass and Americana.

The real difference lies outside town, because within both cities wellness comes down to hotel spas and a few day spas. Baltimore's calm moments are a morning on the harbour promenade, the shade of Druid Hill Park or a quiet hour in the Walters galleries, and anyone wanting proper rest drives out to the Eastern Shore.

Louisville is the slightly gentler place, where unwinding means a slow afternoon on a porch in the Highlands or a drive through horse country. It also has a genuine spa break within reach: the grand old mineral-spring resorts of French Lick and West Baden Springs, about an hour and a half away in southern Indiana.