Branson or Louisville?

Neither city is on the sea, but Branson at least has Table Rock Lake. Its public swim areas, often on sand that has been brought in, and rented pontoons moored in wooded coves make summer days in the water a real part of a trip. Cold Lake Taneycomo in town is for trout fishing, not swimming.

The Ohio at Louisville is a working river with barges and strong currents, so swimming there means a hotel or public pool, or a drive out to a reservoir lake. If you want time in the water, Branson is the only one of the two with it close to hand.

Louisville is the place to eat and drink well. Its food is built on bourbon, poured by the hundred on Whiskey Row and in downtown distillery tasting rooms, and on dishes you won't find elsewhere: the hot brown, Benedictine spread, burgoo and Derby pie. NuLu, the Highlands and Butchertown add Southern farm-to-table cooking.

Branson's restaurants are there to feed you rather than to impress you: buffets, fried chicken and catfish, chains along Highway 76 and set meals at the dinner theatres. Lake trout, skillet cooking and cinnamon bread are its local touches, but there is no restaurant neighbourhood worth seeking out.

Branson's sights are mostly entertainment: wax museums, novelty galleries and a museum built in the shape of an ocean liner's bow. The nearest it comes to heritage is the frontier crafts at the 1880s-themed park and the Ralph Foster Museum.

Louisville has real history to show. There is Churchill Downs with the Kentucky Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center, and the Slugger and Frazier museums among the cast-iron fronts of Whiskey Row. Add the Speed Art Museum and the Victorian mansions of Old Louisville, and you have two or three solid days of sightseeing.

Branson goes to bed once the last show lets out. Apart from a few brewpubs by the lakefront and some hotel lounges, there is little to do after dark.

Louisville is a city of bars rather than clubs, but the bars are good. There are dive bars and patios along Bardstown Road, and bourbon and cocktail bars in NuLu and Butchertown. Some bars are licensed to stay open very late, so a night can run on, and in spring the Derby brings the whole city out.

Branson sits in the Ozarks proper, and the landscape shows it: forested ridges, limestone bluffs and caves. Table Rock Lake is good for kayaking, paddleboarding and bass fishing. Table Rock State Park and Hercules Glades have good walking, and the bluffs of the Buffalo National River are about two hours away.

Louisville's outdoors are gentler and more urban. Olmsted's Cherokee and Iroquois parks, the Big Four Bridge walkway and the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio each make a good morning out. Bernheim Forest and Mammoth Cave are worth the drive, but the countryside is rolling farmland, never wild.

Louisville has the better choice of day trips. Bourbon country starts about 45 minutes away in Bardstown, and distillery tours continue toward Frankfort and Loretto, so plan for someone else to drive. Lexington's thoroughbred farms and Keeneland racecourse, Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace are all easy drives too.

From Branson, the best outings are the steep Victorian streets of Eureka Springs and the Crystal Bridges art museum in Bentonville, with Springfield's Civil War battlefield closer by. That is enough for a couple of days, but the list is shorter. From either city, you need a car.

Branson is built for children in a way Louisville is not. The theme park in the hills, water parks, an aquarium, zip lines, go-karts, cave tours and boat days on the lake can easily fill a week, and most of the shows are aimed at families.

Louisville works well with children for a few days. It has the zoo, the hands-on science centre, a roller coaster and water park, underground ziplines at the Mega Cavern and splash areas in Waterfront Park. Both cities are hot in midsummer and both are spread out.

You need a car in both, but Louisville is the easier of the two. Its downtown along Main Street and the waterfront is walkable, and NuLu is a short walk away. Drives are short and traffic is mild, so reaching Churchill Downs or the Highlands is simple, and ride-hailing works as a fallback.

In Branson the attractions are strung over several hilly kilometres of Highway 76, where pavements are patchy and traffic crawls on show nights. Only the lakefront shopping district and the small old downtown can be walked, and most visitors fly into Springfield and hire a car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, so the real difference is what you take home. Branson's best buys are Ozark crafts such as glass, pottery, quilts and ironwork, often made in front of you. It also has outlet malls and a lakeside shopping district of mainstream American stores.

In Louisville the thing to buy is bourbon, including bottles that are hard to find elsewhere, along with Derby hats and racing memorabilia. For browsing, NuLu has design shops and Bardstown Road has vintage clothes, records and antiques.

Branson is the cheaper of the two, thanks to its many motels, condos and lake cabins and its modest buffets and family restaurants. The cost grows with show tickets, theme park entry and boat hire, though show-and-hotel packages bring it down.

Louisville's hotels are moderately priced outside racing season, and its parks and riverfront cost nothing. Restaurant and bar bills grow with tax and tips, though, and getting around adds a cost every day. In Derby week in spring, room rates go up several times over, so travellers on a budget should stay away then.

Branson exists for its live shows, and it has far more of them. Dozens of theatres stage country, bluegrass, gospel, tribute acts, magic and large biblical productions from morning to night, and Christmas is as busy as summer. If you like that style, Branson is the better choice.

Louisville has fewer shows but a wider range. The Kentucky Center has an orchestra, opera and ballet, and Actors Theatre has a long record of premiering American plays. In summer there is Shakespeare in the park, and Bardstown Road bars have regular bluegrass and Americana.

Neither city has a bathing tradition of its own, but Branson can be more restful if you stay in the right place. That means a lakeside lodge with a full spa on Table Rock Lake, or a cabin on a quiet wooded cove, well away from the neon of the strip.

Louisville offers hotel and day spas and slow afternoons on a porch in the Highlands. For a proper spa break, the old mineral-spring resorts of French Lick and West Baden Springs are about an hour and a half away in Indiana.