Chattanooga or Louisville?

Neither city is a place for a swimming vacation, but Chattanooga at least gives you somewhere to get into the water. Chickamauga Lake and Harrison Bay have small designated swimming areas, and the creeks on the plateau have cool swimming holes for hot afternoons.

In Louisville, the Ohio is a barge river with strong currents, so swimming means a pool or a drive out to the reservoir lakes in the Kentucky countryside. In either city, expect to swim in a pool rather than lie on sand.

Louisville has the more distinctive food and drink. Bourbon shapes everything, from the downtown tasting rooms and the long whiskey lists on Whiskey Row to the old fashioned. The city also has dishes of its own in the hot brown, burgoo, Benedictine and Derby pie, and good restaurants in NuLu, the Highlands and Butchertown.

Chattanooga eats well in a plainer Southern style: meat-and-three plates, barbecue, and catfish with grits. The chef-led places and breweries are on the Southside, and brunch is on the North Shore. Neither city goes far beyond Southern cooking, but Louisville gives a food-minded visitor more to look for.

Each city fills two or three days, but Louisville's sights carry more weight. You have Churchill Downs with the Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center, the Slugger and Frazier museums among the cast-iron fronts of Whiskey Row, the Speed Art Museum, and the Victorian mansions of Old Louisville. Together they make a fuller programme.

Chattanooga's story is the Civil War and the railways: battlefield views from Point Park and Missionary Ridge, and the old Terminal Station. Add the Hunter Museum on its bluff and a walk across the Walnut Street Bridge. Its history is found more in the landscape than in galleries.

Louisville is the better bet for a night out. Bardstown Road is a long strip of dive bars and patios, NuLu and Butchertown have cocktail and bourbon bars, and some places are licensed to stay open very late, so an evening can keep going.

Nights in Chattanooga are shorter and quieter. There are breweries, cocktail bars and a few music bars on the Southside and Main Street, with Station Street as the liveliest block, and most places wind down well before the small hours. Neither city has much of a club scene.

This is where Chattanooga is in a different league. The Tennessee River cuts through the Cumberland Plateau right at the city, and three mountains rise above town. Its sandstone bluffs draw climbers from across the eastern states, hang gliders launch from Lookout Mountain, and you can paddle through a wooded gorge. The Ocoee whitewater, Cloudland Canyon and Fall Creek Falls are all within reach.

Louisville's outdoors are gentler and more urban: Olmsted's Cherokee and Iroquois parks, the Big Four Bridge, the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio, and woodland walks in Jefferson Memorial and Bernheim forests. Mammoth Cave is the standout outing, but the country around the city never becomes dramatic.

Louisville has the more rewarding countryside close by. Bourbon country begins about three-quarters of an hour away in Bardstown. From there, the distillery roads, Lexington's horse farms and Keeneland, Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace make a series of easy and varied outings.

From Chattanooga, the bigger draws are cities further away. Nashville and Atlanta are about two hours each, and Huntsville's rocket centre is not much closer. Lynchburg, Sewanee and the Chickamauga battlefield make quieter outings. You need a car from either city, but Louisville's trips are shorter and have more local character.

Chattanooga is the easier family base. The Tennessee Aquarium, with its river and ocean buildings, is a few blocks from the Creative Discovery Museum, and Coolidge Park has a carousel and splash fountains. On Lookout Mountain, the Incline Railway, Ruby Falls and Rock City are made for children.

Louisville has plenty for children too, from the zoo and the Kentucky Science Center to the coasters and water park at Kentucky Kingdom and the underground zipline at Mega Cavern. These are spread across the city, though. Both cities have hot summers that need some planning around.

You need a car in both cities once you leave the centre, but Chattanooga's core is a little easier to manage. The riverfront, the aquarium, Bluff View and the Southside are all within walking distance, the Walnut Street Bridge takes you across to the North Shore, and a free electric shuttle runs through downtown.

Louisville has no rail transit and few useful buses. Its walkable area covers Main Street, the waterfront and NuLu, while Churchill Downs, the Highlands and the big parks all need a drive. Traffic is mild, so the driving itself is easy.

Shopping is a small part of a visit to either city. The difference is in what you take home. Chattanooga's speciality is outdoor gear, found in the boutiques along Frazier Avenue and the converted railway warehouses of Warehouse Row. Louisville's is bourbon, with distillery shops selling bottles that are hard to find elsewhere, plus vintage clothes and records on Bardstown Road.

The two cost much the same. Both have mid-sized American prices, sales tax and tipping on every meal, and a hire car that most visitors end up paying for. In Chattanooga, a family's money goes mainly on admission to the aquarium and the Lookout Mountain attractions, while free trails and the downtown shuttle help balance this.

Louisville's hotels are good value outside the racing season. Derby week in spring is the exception, when room rates jump to several times their usual level, so anyone watching their budget should avoid it.

Louisville has clearly more on stage. The Kentucky Center is home to the city's orchestra, opera and ballet, Actors Theatre has long been known for staging new American plays, and the Palace takes touring concerts. In summer there is Shakespeare in Central Park and music at the Iroquois Amphitheater.

Chattanooga has the gilded Tivoli Theatre, a small symphony and opera company, a community theatre, and country, bluegrass and Americana in Southside bars. That fills an evening or two, while Louisville can fill several.

Neither city is somewhere to go for rest, and both have only hotel spas and a few day spas. In Chattanooga, relaxing means a slow afternoon on the riverfront or a Bluff View porch after days of climbing or hiking. In Louisville, it means a porch in the Highlands or a drive through horse country, and for a real spa break the old mineral-spring resorts of French Lick and West Baden Springs are about an hour and a half away in Indiana.