Chattanooga or Kansas City?

Neither is a beach destination, but Chattanooga gives you a little more. The swimming areas at Chickamauga Lake and Harrison Bay, and the cool creek swimming holes up on the plateau, make a good hot afternoon. Kansas City has sandy lake beaches in county parks on the edge of the metro area, plus pools, which are fine for children but have nothing like the plateau creeks.

Kansas City is the stronger food trip, and the reason is barbecue: meat smoked over hickory, a thick sweet sauce and burnt ends, from old counters near the stockyards to polished dining rooms. It also has steakhouses, and Vietnamese, Ethiopian and Mexican cooking around the River Market and the Westside.

Chattanooga eats Southern in a plainer way: meat-and-three plates, biscuits, catfish and grits, with the chef-led places and breweries gathered on the Southside and around Main Street. It is pleasant for a few days, but it has no single dish to travel for and less international cooking.

Chattanooga's history is mostly outdoors: Civil War ground at Point Park and Missionary Ridge, the old Terminal Station and the Walnut Street Bridge. The Hunter Museum on its bluff is the main collection.

Kansas City has the more substantial museums. The Nelson-Atkins is a major encyclopaedic collection, the National WWI Museum is the country's main museum of that war, and the Negro Leagues and American Jazz museums in 18th and Vine have no equivalent elsewhere. Union Station and the Country Club Plaza add grand architecture that Chattanooga lacks.

Kansas City has more choice after dark, spread across separate districts: loud sports bars in Power and Light, the student strip in Westport, and calmer cocktail and craft-beer bars in the Crossroads. Plenty of its bars stay open late. Chattanooga's evenings centre on breweries and patios on the Southside, with Station Street as its one lively block, and most places close well before the small hours. Neither city has much club culture.

This is the widest gap between the two. Chattanooga sits where the Tennessee River cuts through the Cumberland Plateau. Climbing bluffs, hang-gliding launches, mountain-bike trails and paddling in the gorge are right above town, and the Ocoee whitewater and Cloudland Canyon are about an hour away.

Kansas City is surrounded by rolling prairie and farmland. Swope Park, the rose garden in Loose Park, paved creekside trails and the reservoirs on the city's edge are good for walks, but serious hiking means a drive of several hours to the Ozarks.

Chattanooga sits near three state lines, which puts bigger places within reach: Nashville and Atlanta about two hours away, the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, and the Chickamauga battlefield close by. Kansas City's outings are smaller: Truman's home in Independence, the university town of Lawrence, the river town of Weston and the Pony Express museum in St Joseph. They make pleasant half days rather than trips you would plan around. You need a car for both.

Both work well with children, and the difference is in what you do. In Chattanooga, a family day revolves around the Tennessee Aquarium and three Lookout Mountain sights: the Incline Railway, Ruby Falls and Rock City. It is all in a small, relaxed city.

Kansas City leans towards bigger thrills and indoor attractions: the roller coasters and water park at Worlds of Fun, a large zoo, Science City inside Union Station and the Legoland centre at Crown Center. These are spread further apart, so expect more time in the car.

Outside the centre both are car cities, so most visitors hire a car either way. The difference is the centre itself. Chattanooga's is small and walkable, with the Walnut Street Bridge and a free electric shuttle linking the riverfront, the Southside and the North Shore. In Kansas City, the streetcar along Main Street runs from the River Market past Union Station towards Midtown, which makes a car-free day or two possible if you stay along the line.

Kansas City has more to browse. The Spanish-style Country Club Plaza is the main shopping area, with upmarket stores, and there are galleries and vintage shops in the Crossroads and record shops around Westport. Chattanooga has less: a few shops in Warehouse Row and boutiques on Frazier Avenue, with outdoor gear the one thing worth looking for.

Neither is a budget destination, and the costs end up similar: a hire car, sales tax and tips, and full-price family attractions in both. The savings come in different places. In Chattanooga, the trails, the riverfront and the downtown shuttle cost nothing. In Kansas City, free general entry to the Nelson-Atkins and filling barbecue lunches keep a sightseeing day cheaper.

Kansas City is the music city of the two. Its own style of jazz is still played most nights in clubs around 18th and Vine. The Kauffman Center is home to the symphony, the opera and the ballet, and in summer the open-air Starlight Theatre puts on Broadway musicals.

Chattanooga has the gilded Tivoli Theatre and a small symphony and opera company, plus country, bluegrass and Americana in Southside bars. That fills an evening or two, where Kansas City can fill several.

Chattanooga is the slightly easier place to slow down. It is a small, quiet city, and an afternoon on the riverfront or on a porch in Bluff View passes at an unhurried pace. For treatments, though, there are only hotel spas and a few day spas.

Kansas City has the same kind of hotel and suburban day spas. Its nearest thing to a bathing tradition is Excelsior Springs, an old mineral-water resort with a historic spa hotel, about forty minutes' drive north. In town, the rose garden in Loose Park and the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park are good for a calm morning, but rest is not the reason to choose either city.