Chattanooga or Gatlinburg?

Neither has a beach, but Chattanooga's lake water makes the friendlier swim. Chickamauga Lake and Harrison Bay State Park have designated swimming areas that are warm from June to September, and there are cool swimming holes on the plateau above town.

Gatlinburg's water is mountain river, cold even in July and fast after rain. Tubing on the Little River near Townsend is the fun here, and for a proper lake swim Douglas Lake is about forty minutes away.

Chattanooga eats noticeably better. Its Southern cooking runs from meat-and-three plates to smoked brisket and catfish. The Southside and Main Street have the chef-led restaurants and breweries, and the North Shore does brunch. The range is narrow, but you have real choices.

Gatlinburg's Parkway is built to feed crowds: pancake breakfasts, barbecue, fudge and moonshine tastings. Good Appalachian dishes such as trout, country ham and stack cake exist, but you have to look for them, and keen eaters drive to Knoxville.

Chattanooga has the history and the museums. The Civil War battlefields on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, the old Terminal Station, the Hunter Museum on its bluff and the Walnut Street Bridge give you two or three solid days.

Gatlinburg has almost none of this in town, where the landmarks are an observation tower and mountaintop amusements. Its heritage lies in the working studios of the Great Smoky Arts and Crafts Community and in the mountain cabins, mills and churches of Cades Cove and the Roaring Fork, which you drive out to in the park.

Neither town is built for a late night, but Chattanooga gives you somewhere to go after dinner. Going out here centres on craft beer and cocktails, and the bars sit close enough together downtown that you can try two or three in an evening and find people your own age doing the same. It suits couples and groups of friends in their twenties and thirties who want a few drinks and some company after a day climbing or paddling, not a club.

In Gatlinburg, drinking is more something to sample than a night out: small glasses of fruit-flavoured moonshine at a tasting counter, perhaps a beer on a brewery terrace, then back up the hill. The evening is planned around families and couples, so anyone hoping to dance or stay out late will find almost nothing. For travellers who just want to unwind after the trails, though, that quiet is part of the appeal.

Both are serious outdoor bases, and Gatlinburg has the edge because it opens straight into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Deep hardwood forest, waterfall walks, the Alum Cave climb up Mount LeConte, Clingmans Dome at close to 2,025m and frequent bear sightings make it the bigger wilderness, though roads clog at weekends and in October.

Chattanooga's outdoors is more about sport than wilderness. You get rock climbing on the sandstone bluffs, hang gliding from Lookout Mountain, paddling in the Tennessee River Gorge and Ocoee whitewater within an hour.

The two have about as many outings as each other, but of different kinds. From Chattanooga the pull is cities: Nashville and Atlanta are each about two hours away, and Huntsville's Space and Rocket Center is closer, so long drives are part of the deal.

From Gatlinburg the trips lean towards the mountains. You can cross Newfound Gap to Cherokee and its museum, go on to Asheville and the Biltmore Estate, or drop down to quiet Townsend, with Knoxville about an hour away.

Gatlinburg is the more complete family destination. The Parkway is one long run of attractions for children, Dollywood is a short drive away, and the park adds easy waterfall walks, creek wading and junior ranger badges. The cost is traffic and queues in high season.

Chattanooga is gentler and smaller. The Tennessee Aquarium and the Creative Discovery Museum are close together downtown, Lookout Mountain has the Incline Railway and Ruby Falls, and Coolidge Park has a carousel and splash fountains.

In both towns you can walk only a small core and need a car beyond it. Chattanooga's walkable centre is wider, joining the riverfront, the Southside and the North Shore across the Walnut Street Bridge, and a free shuttle runs through downtown. In Gatlinburg the walkable part is the Parkway strip, with a trolley out to Pigeon Forge, but most visitors stay in hillside cabins and drive park roads that jam in October.

Shopping is a sideline in both, though of different kinds. Chattanooga's best is on Frazier Avenue, with boutiques and outdoor-gear shops, and in the converted warehouses of Warehouse Row, with a large mall on the edge of town.

Gatlinburg's Parkway is mostly souvenirs and candy kitchens. The Arts and Crafts Community loop, though, sells quilts, pottery and brooms straight from the makers' studios, and Pigeon Forge has the outlet malls.

Chattanooga costs a steady amount rather than a lot. Hotels and casual meals are cheaper than in the big American cities, and the trails, riverfront walks and downtown shuttle are free. Against that, the aquarium and Lookout Mountain charge full admission, and tips and a hire car add up.

Gatlinburg works out a little cheaper, mostly because of how people stay there. A large cabin shared by a group or an extended family, or an older motel midweek or in winter, keeps the bill down, and the national park costs little to enjoy. The savings disappear on the Parkway attractions and at Dollywood, and rates jump in October and over Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year.

Chattanooga can give you a proper evening at the theatre: the gilded 1920s Tivoli Theatre, a symphony and opera company with a regular season, and bluegrass and Americana bands in Southside bars. Gatlinburg's entertainment is mountain music in tasting rooms and on the street, with dinner shows and gospel revues in Pigeon Forge and more at Dollywood, but there is no orchestra or serious theatre.

Neither has spas worth travelling for, so the difference lies in how you stay. Gatlinburg's secluded hillside cabins, with a hot tub on the deck and mist on the ridges, make it the better place to switch off, as long as you stay above the noisy Parkway.

Chattanooga's calm is that of a small, quiet city: an unhurried afternoon on the riverfront or a porch in Bluff View, in a place where most visitors come to be active.