Branson or Memphis?

Neither city has a coast, but Branson at least has Table Rock Lake. From June to early September you can swim there from public swim areas with brought-in sand, or jump off a rented pontoon in a quiet cove. Memphis has only the Mississippi, where nobody swims, so cooling off means a hotel pool, a splash pad or a drive out to a lake in the countryside.

Memphis is a city you can plan meals around. It has its own style of barbecue, with dry-rubbed ribs, pulled-pork sandwiches with slaw and oddities like barbecue spaghetti, served everywhere from neighbourhood pits to big downtown dining rooms. Around that come soul food, Delta tamales and a modern layer of restaurants and breweries in Cooper-Young.

In Branson, food mostly keeps you going between shows. Expect buffets, the chain restaurants along Highway 76 and set meals at dinner theatres. The best tastes are Ozark ones such as fresh trout, cinnamon bread and fudge. Neither city does fine dining well, but only Memphis has a cooking tradition worth travelling for.

Memphis has the sights that matter. Graceland, the small Sun Studio room and the Stax museum in Soulsville tell the story of American popular music, and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel is deeply moving. The old townscape is patchy, but those museums are worth the trip on their own.

Branson's sights are amusements rather than heritage: wax museums, the museum shaped like the bow of an ocean liner and other novelty galleries. Its real history is limited to the frontier crafts shown at the 1880s-themed park and the eclectic Ralph Foster Museum.

Memphis offers a real night out. At weekends you can carry a drink from bar to bar along Beale Street, while locals go to Overton Square and the dive bars and beer gardens of Cooper-Young. It is a bar city rather than a club city, but it stays up late.

In Branson the show is the evening's entertainment, and once it ends the town goes to bed. A brewpub by the lakefront shopping district or a hotel lounge is about as late as it gets.

Branson sits among forested ridges, limestone bluffs and caves. Table Rock Lake is good for kayaking and bass fishing, cold Lake Taneycomo is known for trout, and Hercules Glades Wilderness has proper walking. The bluffs and canoeing of the Buffalo National River are two hours south.

The outdoors in Memphis are city parks on flat floodplain. You can paddle and see bison at Shelby Farms, walk or cycle over the Mississippi on the Big River Crossing, or wander the old-growth woods of Overton Park. These are pleasant afternoons, but there are no hills or wild country.

Memphis has the more coherent set of outings. Highway 61 runs south into the Delta, to the juke joints and blues museum of Clarksdale and the Blues Trail towns. Oxford has Faulkner's house, and Tupelo and Shiloh are further out. For music and history pilgrims these round out the trip naturally.

Branson's best day out is the Victorian spa town of Eureka Springs. Crystal Bridges in Bentonville is a serious art museum, and Springfield has the Wilson's Creek battlefield. These are good single trips rather than a connected route, and both lists mean long hours behind the wheel.

Branson is built for children. Its Ozark-themed park has roller coasters, and close by there are water parks, an aquarium, a paddlewheel showboat, zip lines and caves, plus dinner shows with horses and stunts. Hotels and restaurants expect families everywhere you go.

Memphis has enough for a few days: the zoo in Overton Park, the Children's Museum, the Pink Palace planetarium and the daily march of the Peabody ducks. Its headline museums on music and civil rights suit teenagers better than young children.

You will need a car in both cities, but Memphis at least has a walkable core. Downtown takes in Beale Street, the riverfront, the Civil Rights Museum and South Main, and heritage trolleys run along Main Street. Graceland, Midtown and Shelby Farms are further out and need a car or ride-hail.

Branson is spread over several hilly kilometres along Highway 76, with patchy pavements and traffic that crawls on show nights. Only Branson Landing and the small old downtown are walkable, so nearly everyone hires a car at Springfield airport.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and the difference lies in what you bring home. Branson's best buys are Ozark crafts such as hand-blown glass, quilts and ironwork, often made in front of you, and it has outlet malls and Branson Landing for mainstream stores. In Memphis the finds are musical, from vintage vinyl to Elvis memorabilia, with small boutiques and local art in Cooper-Young and on Broad Avenue.

Overall the two cost about the same. In both, a room and everyday meals are reasonable, and the money goes on the car and paid attractions. In Branson that means show tickets, theme park entry and boat hire, though show-and-hotel packages and a large supply of motels and lake cabins help.

In Memphis, cheap barbecue and soul-food plates keep eating costs down, while Graceland admission and ride-hails add up. Hotel prices are much higher during the big spring festivals.

Both are music towns, of very different kinds. Branson runs scheduled theatre shows from morning to evening: country and gospel acts, variety revues, tribute shows, magicians and biblical productions with live animals, plus a Christmas season as busy as summer. It is polished and wholesome, but narrow.

In Memphis the music comes from clubs and parks. House bands play blues and soul on Beale Street, Midtown has rock and hip-hop, and the Levitt Shell puts on free summer concerts. It also has what Branson lacks: touring Broadway at the Orpheum, a symphony orchestra, an opera company and a ballet company.

Branson is the easier place to unwind, as long as you stay out on Table Rock Lake rather than on the strip. The lodge resorts there have full spas and quiet grounds, and a cabin on a wooded cove is peaceful. A Memphis trip runs on late nights. Wellness there means a hotel spa or a day spa in the suburbs, and the quiet moments are an early walk in Overton Park or an evening on the bluffs above the river.