Chattanooga or Houston?

Neither city is a beach destination, but at least Houston has the sea within reach. In Chattanooga all swimming is in fresh water: small designated areas on Chickamauga Lake and at Harrison Bay, plus cool creek pools up on the plateau. They are good for a hot afternoon and not much more.

From Houston, Galveston Island is about an hour's drive away, with miles of sand along the seawall and the West End and warm, shallow Gulf water. The water is cloudy and brown-green, so it makes a day or a weekend by the sea rather than a beach vacation. Still, it is a real coastline, which Chattanooga does not have.

Houston is the far stronger place to eat. Chattanooga sticks to Southern comfort cooking: meat-and-three plates, fried chicken, biscuits and smoked pork. Its chef-led restaurants and breweries are on the Southside and Main Street, but there is little international cooking and a few days cover it.

Houston has a whole local cuisine in Tex-Mex, plus serious Texas brisket, Gulf oysters and Viet-Cajun crawfish. Then there is the long stretch of Asiatown on Bellaire Boulevard, and Nigerian, Pakistani and Salvadoran neighbourhoods across the south-west. The catch is distance: in Houston the best meals are a drive apart, while in Chattanooga they are a short walk.

Houston has more to see, and most of it is indoors. There are the Museum of Fine Arts and the natural science museum in the Museum District, the Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel in Montrose, and mission control at Space Center Houston. It has few historic streets, though.

Chattanooga's appeal is history you can stand on. The Civil War battlefields at Point Park and Missionary Ridge, the old Terminal Station and the Walnut Street Bridge give it a stronger sense of place. The Hunter Museum and the Bessie Smith Cultural Center round out two or three days.

Houston gives you more choice after dark. The scene is spread over Montrose's long-established gay bars and neighbourhood drinking, the busier lounges of Midtown and Washington Avenue, and the bars of EaDo near the stadiums, with open-sided icehouses for warm nights. Getting between areas usually means a ride.

Chattanooga's evenings are smaller and end earlier: breweries, cocktail bars and a few music rooms on the Southside and Main Street, with Station Street as the liveliest block. It suits a beer on a patio, not a night that runs until closing time.

Chattanooga is far ahead here. Lookout, Signal and Raccoon mountains rise straight up from town, and the sandstone bluffs draw climbers from across the East. The Tennessee River Gorge, the Ocoee whitewater and the waterfalls of Cloudland Canyon and Fall Creek Falls are all within easy reach.

Houston sits on flat coastal prairie cut by slow bayous. Buffalo Bayou and Memorial Park are good for a run or a paddle, and Brazos Bend has alligators. Its standout draw is the spring bird migration along the coast near Galveston, which is a pleasure for specialists rather than a landscape to explore for days.

Chattanooga has more within a day's drive because it sits where three states meet. Nashville and Atlanta are about two hours away. Huntsville's Space and Rocket Center, Knoxville and the Jack Daniel's town of Lynchburg are closer, and the Chickamauga battlefield is just south.

Houston has fewer outings, but they are distinctive: Galveston's Strand and Victorian East End, the San Jacinto battlefield, and the wildflower back roads around Brenham and Round Top. Austin and San Antonio are too far for a comfortable return trip, so once you have done Galveston the options run out sooner.

Both cities make an easy family trip, and the difference is in kind. Chattanooga's attractions are close together: the Tennessee Aquarium and the Creative Discovery Museum downtown, then the Incline Railway, Ruby Falls and Rock City on Lookout Mountain, all at a relaxed small-city scale.

Houston's are bigger and further apart. They are led by the real spacecraft at Space Center Houston, the zoo and museums of Hermann Park, and Galveston's beaches and waterparks. Both cities need a car and early starts in summer, but in Houston the distances and the heat weigh more.

Chattanooga is the easier of the two to manage without a car, at least in town. Its walkable core covers most of what a visitor comes downtown for: the aquarium, the Hunter Museum on its bluff, the Southside's restaurants and, across the Walnut Street Bridge, the North Shore and Coolidge Park. You only need to drive for the mountain, the trails and the day trips.

In Houston, downtown and the Museum District are the only easy places to walk, and they are small pockets in a very large city. The light rail joins those two, but Asiatown's kitchens, the Uptown shops, Space Center Houston and Galveston are all a long drive out. Expect to use a car or ride-hailing on nearly every day of the trip.

Houston is the clear choice for shopping. Uptown's huge mall has the luxury houses under one roof, River Oaks has high-end boutiques, and the Heights and Rice Village add vintage and independent shops. Western boots and hats are the local buy.

Chattanooga is good for a few hours' browsing in the converted railway warehouses of Warehouse Row and the boutiques, galleries and outdoor-gear stores on Frazier Avenue. Climbing and hiking kit is the one thing worth seeking out.

Both are moderately priced by American standards and neither suits a tight budget. What differs is where the money goes. In Chattanooga, hotels and casual meals cost less than in the big cities and the trails and parks are free, but the aquarium and the Lookout Mountain attractions charge full admission.

Houston's cheapest pleasures are its taquerias, barbecue joints and Asiatown noodle shops, along with several free major museums. In both cities the costs that add up are a hire car, fuel and American tipping, and in Houston parking and longer drives add to them.

Houston has far more on stage. Its downtown Theater District has the Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Ballet at the Wortham Center, the Houston Symphony at Jones Hall and the Alley Theatre producing all year. On top of that there are free summer shows at Miller Outdoor Theatre and blues, zydeco and hip-hop in smaller rooms.

Chattanooga is good for an evening or two: touring shows and its small symphony and opera company in the gilded Tivoli Theatre, community theatre on the North Shore, and bluegrass and Americana in Southside bars.

Neither city is a place to come for spas or bathing, and both rely on hotel spas and day spas. The difference is in the kind of calm. Chattanooga is small and unhurried all the way through, with slow afternoons on the riverfront or on a porch in Bluff View.

Houston's pace is set by its freeways, so rest comes in short spells: an hour in the Rothko Chapel or on the Menil lawns, or an early walk in Hermann Park. It also has a few Korean-style bathhouses out in the suburbs, which Chattanooga lacks.