Baltimore or St. Louis?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Baltimore at least has a bay within reach. Sandy Point State Park, about forty minutes' drive, offers a sandy afternoon by the Bay Bridge in brackish water, with sea nettles in high summer. The Atlantic surf is about three hours away.

St. Louis sits on fast-flowing working rivers far from any coast. Swimming there means a pool, or a long drive to a reservoir lake in the Ozarks.

Both cities cook with a strong local accent rather than great range, and the difference is in the speciality. Baltimore eats from the Chesapeake: steamed blue crabs on brown paper in summer and early autumn, lump crab cakes all year, and oysters and coddies in old market halls such as Lexington Market.

St. Louis eats inland, with rib barbecue, toasted ravioli, thin Provel-topped pizza and frozen custard, Italian cooking on the Hill and Bosnian grills along South Grand. It is also the stronger beer town, from the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Soulard to its many taprooms.

Each city fills two or three days of sightseeing, with free art museums at the heart of both. Baltimore leans towards collections and maritime history: the Matisse holdings of the Cone Collection, the Walters' range from Egypt to Fabergé, Fort McHenry and the historic ships of the Inner Harbor. Fells Point and Mount Vernon are good streets to walk.

St. Louis is built around one landmark and its architecture. There is the Gateway Arch with its museum of westward expansion, the Old Courthouse where the Dred Scott case began, the early skyscraper of the Wainwright Building and the mosaics of the Cathedral Basilica, with the art museum out in Forest Park.

Neither city is for clubbing, but Baltimore makes the easier night out. Fells Point packs centuries-old taverns around a cobbled square by the water, and Federal Hill and Canton are a walk away along the harbour, so a bar crawl needs no taxi.

St. Louis spreads its evenings across separate pockets: blues taverns in Soulard, dance bars on Washington Avenue, the Grove for LGBTQ+ nights and the student Delmar Loop, usually with a taxi in between. Outside game nights and weekends, many of its streets go quiet early.

The countryside around both cities is green and rolling rather than dramatic, and spring and autumn are the seasons for it. Baltimore's outdoors leans towards water and wooded gorges: kayaking on the harbour, sailing the sheltered Chesapeake from Annapolis, and the trails of Patapsco Valley at the city's edge.

St. Louis turns towards rock and rivers. It has the bluffs and caves of Castlewood, the boulders of Elephant Rocks and the pools of Johnson's Shut-Ins in the Ozark foothills, the Katy Trail for cyclists and the large Forest Park inside the city. Both get bald eagles, on Baltimore's marshes and on the winter bluffs near Alton.

Here Baltimore pulls well ahead. Washington DC and Philadelphia are each about an hour away by train, so you can visit the Smithsonian or Independence Hall without a car. Annapolis, Gettysburg, Harpers Ferry and the Eastern Shore villages give you a second tier of trips by road.

St. Louis has one outstanding trip, Cahokia Mounds, twenty minutes across the river, and a set of gentler ones: French colonial Ste. Genevieve, the German wine towns of Hermann and Augusta, and Hannibal. They make pleasant days out, but almost all of them need a car and none compares with a national capital.

St. Louis is the better choice with children. The City Museum, a climbable maze of tunnels and slides in an old shoe warehouse, has no real equivalent elsewhere. The zoo and Science Center in Forest Park are free, and the Magic House and the Arch tram pods add more.

Baltimore's strength is that its attractions sit together. The National Aquarium, the Maryland Science Center and Port Discovery are all on the Inner Harbor, which makes the first days easy. Beyond that cluster the choice thins, and families end up relying on cars and taxis there too.

Baltimore is the easier city without a car, at least around the water. The Inner Harbor, Fells Point, Federal Hill and Little Italy link up along a waterfront promenade, water taxis run between the piers, and fast trains reach Washington and Philadelphia.

St. Louis is laid out for driving. MetroLink covers the airport, Forest Park, downtown and Clayton, but Soulard, the Hill and nearly every day trip need a car. The consolation is easy parking and uncongested roads.

Baltimore's shops sell the city's own character back to you. Hampden's 36th Street, known as the Avenue, mixes vintage, kitsch and local art. Fells Point adds antiques and record shops, and the market halls sell crab mallets and Old Bay to take home.

St. Louis's browsing is more spread out and more international, with the antiques row and Latin American shops of Cherokee Street, the student-feel stores of the Delmar Loop and the galleries of the Central West End. In both cities fashion and big names are in the suburban malls, and an afternoon is enough.

St. Louis comes out a little cheaper. Its hotels cost less than on the coasts, even downtown, and the zoo, art museum, history museum and science centre are all free. Barbecue and the Bosnian grills keep everyday meals modest.

Baltimore is good value next to Washington or New York, which is why many visitors to the capital stay there, and its two main art museums are free. Waterfront hotels and crab feasts push costs up, though, and in both cities taxis or a hire car add to the daily spend.

St. Louis has the deeper stage. Its symphony, founded in 1880, plays in the ornate Powell Hall, and the Muny puts on summer musicals outdoors in Forest Park. The Opera Theatre runs an early-summer festival, and the blues heritage of Chuck Berry and W.C. Handy lives on in bars downtown and in Soulard.

Baltimore has a solid season of its own: its symphony at the Meyerhoff, frequent free concerts at the Peabody Institute and touring Broadway shows at the Hippodrome. It has no resident opera of note, though, and its club music leans towards indie and punk around Station North.

Baltimore finds its calm by the water. You can take a morning on the harbour promenade or an hour under the trees of Druid Hill, and for real rest, people head out to the Eastern Shore.

In St. Louis the calm comes from gardens and an easy pace: the Japanese garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden, slow mornings in Forest Park and streets where crowds are rarely a problem. Apart from that, both cities offer only hotel spas and yoga studios, and neither suits a restorative vacation.