Charleston or Louisville?

This is the widest gap between the two. Charleston has three barrier-island beaches within easy reach: surfy Folly with its pier, residential Sullivan's Island backed by dunes and forts, and broader Isle of Palms, with emptier sand further south on Kiawah. The water is tidal and greenish rather than clear, but it is warm enough for months of swimming.

Louisville sits on the Ohio, a working river with barges and strong currents where nobody swims. A summer dip means a public pool or a drive out to a reservoir lake in the Kentucky countryside.

Charleston has the stronger table. Its Lowcountry cooking, with shrimp and grits, she-crab soup, Carolina Gold rice and winter oyster roasts, draws on Gullah Geechee roots and is served everywhere from townhouse dining rooms to whole-hog barbecue pits and seafood shacks on Shem Creek. The catch is that the best tables need booking well ahead.

Louisville's food scene is built around bourbon. Old fashioneds on Whiskey Row, the hot brown and Derby pie are the local signatures, and NuLu and the Highlands have good farm-to-table kitchens. Beyond the Southern and whiskey traditions, though, the choice thins out sooner than Charleston's does.

Charleston's sightseeing is the town itself: Georgian and antebellum streets, Rainbow Row and the Battery, and house museums like the Aiken-Rhett that show the enslaved quarters alongside the grand rooms. Fort Sumter and the International African American Museum give it a historical depth that Louisville does not try to match.

Louisville's sights tell the story of what made it famous: Churchill Downs and the Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center and the Slugger museum on Whiskey Row. Old Louisville's Victorian mansions and Cave Hill Cemetery are good for an afternoon's walk, but the city is more about its themes than about its streets.

Both cities offer a bar crawl rather than a club night, and the difference is in the mood. Upper King Street in Charleston is rooftops, oyster bars and weekend crowds of students and groups, with quieter wine bars in the French Quarter, and most places close around 2am.

Louisville's evenings spread along Bardstown Road's dive bars and patios and the bourbon bars of NuLu, and some licences let a night run much later. Derby season brings the one stretch of the year when the whole city goes out.

Neither city has dramatic scenery, but they reward different activities. Charleston's outdoors is flat and watery: kayaking through spartina marsh among dolphins, alligators and birdlife in the ACE Basin, and cycling on Kiawah and Edisto. You will want to go in spring or autumn to avoid the summer mosquitoes.

Louisville is the place for walking on solid ground. Olmsted's Cherokee and Iroquois parks have wooded hills and city views, Jefferson Memorial Forest and Bernheim Forest offer proper woodland trails, and Mammoth Cave's underground passages are within a day's reach.

Both cities have about as much to see outside town, and each one's day trips follow its own themes. From Charleston the outings are about gardens and history. Middleton Place, Magnolia and Drayton Hall line the Ashley River, Boone Hall is in Mount Pleasant, and McLeod Plantation on James Island tells the story of the enslaved people who worked the land. Further along the coast are Savannah's squares and Beaufort, the base for Gullah culture on the sea islands.

From Louisville the main draw is bourbon country around Bardstown and Frankfort, along with Lexington's white-fenced horse farms and Shaker Village. Either way you need a car, and in Kentucky a designated driver as well.

Families will do about equally well in either city, but the days look different. Charleston's attractions are the aquarium and children's museum on the waterfront, the aircraft carrier at Patriots Point and, above all, gentle beaches, though it has no zoo or theme park.

Louisville fills that gap with a well-regarded zoo, Kentucky Kingdom's roller coasters and water park, and underground ziplines at the Mega Cavern. Its attractions are spread out, so expect more time in the car.

Charleston is easier to get around without a car, at least in the old town. The flat peninsula keeps most sights within walking distance, and pedicabs and a free shuttle cover the gaps, so you only need a car for the beaches and plantations.

Louisville has no rail and only a thin bus network. Downtown and NuLu are walkable, but Churchill Downs, the Highlands, the zoo and the big parks all mean a drive. The consolation is light traffic and easy parking.

Charleston makes the better shopping trip, mainly because King Street changes as you walk it, from antiques and galleries at the lower end through fashion names to independent design shops further up. The sweetgrass baskets woven by Gullah artisans at City Market are a souvenir with real roots.

Louisville's shopping is smaller and more local, with a few boutiques in NuLu and vintage clothes, records and antiques on Bardstown Road. What most visitors take home is a bottle of bourbon they would struggle to find anywhere else.

Louisville is the cheaper of the two, mainly because of its hotels. Rooms downtown are moderately priced outside the racing season and parking is rarely a problem, although tips, sales tax and the cost of getting around still add up. Derby week is the exception, with rates several times higher.

Charleston's peninsula inns cost as much as those in far bigger cities, especially on spring and autumn weekends. Paid house tours and parking push the bill up further, and staying in Mount Pleasant to save money means driving in every day.

Louisville has the steadier programme. The Kentucky Center is home to an orchestra, an opera company and a ballet, Actors Theatre has long staged new American plays, and Bardstown Road bars have bluegrass and Americana on most nights, with outdoor Shakespeare and park concerts in summer.

Charleston's big moment is Spoleto Festival USA, when opera, dance and jazz take over the city for more than two weeks in late spring. For the rest of the year it is the Dock Street Theatre, the symphony at the Gaillard Center and Gullah storytelling, so plan around the festival if performance matters to you.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, but Charleston is the easier place to unwind. The old town itself does most of the work, with shaded walled gardens, quiet church courtyards and evenings at White Point Garden, and the resort spas on Kiawah add some pampering.

Louisville relaxes in a more homespun way, with a porch afternoon in the Highlands or a drive through horse country. For a real spa break you have to drive to the old mineral-spring resorts at French Lick in Indiana.