Chattanooga or New Orleans?

Neither city is right for a beach vacation, and in both the hotel pool does most of the work. What differs is the water nearby. Chattanooga has small lake swimming areas at Chickamauga Lake and Harrison Bay, plus cool creek pools on the plateau, which are good for a hot afternoon.

New Orleans has nowhere to swim in the city itself. A drive of over an hour takes you to the Gulf sand around Bay St. Louis, where the sea is warm but shallow and murky.

Chattanooga feeds you well in a plain Southern way. Expect meat-and-three plates, smoked brisket, catfish and grits, and craft breweries around the Southside, but a few days is enough to cover it.

New Orleans is a city people travel to just to eat. Its Creole and Cajun cooking runs from French Quarter dining rooms more than a century old to po'boy counters in Mid-City. It follows the seasons, with crawfish boils in spring and oysters in the cooler months, and classic cocktails are part of the cuisine.

Chattanooga's sights are mostly about the Civil War and the railway: Point Park on Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and the old Terminal Station, plus the Hunter Museum above the river and the long Walnut Street Bridge. Two or three days covers them.

New Orleans has far more to see, mainly because the French Quarter is a whole colonial town rather than a set of separate sights, with Jackson Square, the cathedral and the Cabildo at its centre. Add the Garden District mansions, the above-ground tombs and the National WWII Museum and you have enough for a longer stay, although neither city has many major art collections.

The gap here is wide. A night out in Chattanooga means a brewery or cocktail bar on the Southside or along Station Street, and most places are quiet well before the small hours.

In New Orleans there is no closing time and you can carry your drink along the street, so the night moves on foot from bar to bar, through the Marigny and the dives of the Bywater, until dawn. Bourbon Street is the loud tourist end of it.

This is where Chattanooga is strongest. Lookout, Signal and Raccoon Mountains rise straight above town, and the bluffs, trails and river gorge give some of the best climbing, mountain biking and paddling in the eastern United States. The Ocoee whitewater and the rim trails of Cloudland Canyon are about an hour away.

New Orleans offers a quieter, wetter kind of nature: cypress swamps and bayous seen by boat or kayak, with alligators and herons, and the old live oaks of City Park. There are no hills, and the summer heat confines most outdoor time to spring and late autumn.

Both cities have a short list of good outings, and you need a car for most of them. From Chattanooga the trips are mostly to cities: Nashville and Atlanta about two hours away, the Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, and the Chickamauga battlefield close by.

From New Orleans the classic day out is the River Road, past the old sugar plantations, where the Whitney is the most affecting stop. The quiet Gulf towns and the Cajun dance-hall country around Lafayette add a different flavour.

Chattanooga is the easier of the two with children. The Tennessee Aquarium, the Creative Discovery Museum and Lookout Mountain's Incline Railway, Ruby Falls and Rock City are all built with families in mind, though you will drive between some of them.

New Orleans has good options too, including Audubon Zoo, the Aquarium of the Americas, the children's amusement park in City Park and rides on the streetcars. But Bourbon Street is off limits at night, parents need to watch which streets they walk after dark, and both cities are very hot in summer.

Both have a walkable core, but only New Orleans works well without a car. The French Quarter, the Marigny and the Warehouse District sit in one flat band along the river, and the streetcars, slow as they are, reach the Garden District and City Park.

In Chattanooga the free downtown shuttle and the Walnut Street Bridge cover the centre. Lookout Mountain, the trails and the climbing areas are all beyond them, so most visitors hire a car.

Chattanooga has little to shop for beyond Warehouse Row and the small boutiques of Frazier Avenue, though its outdoor-gear stores suit a climbing or paddling trip. New Orleans has much more character: antique dealers and galleries on Royal Street, miles of independent and vintage shops on Magazine Street, and Mardi Gras masks and costumes of its own. Neither is a city for designer flagships.

Overall the two cost about the same, but the money goes in different places. In Chattanooga hotels are reasonable and the trails are free, but the aquarium, the Lookout Mountain attractions and a hire car soon add up, especially for a family.

In New Orleans you can manage without a car and eat cheaply on po'boys and red beans. Rooms near the French Quarter are the big expense, and they jump in price around Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest.

Chattanooga has the gilded Tivoli Theatre, a small symphony and opera company, and Southside bars playing bluegrass and Americana. That is enough for a night or two.

New Orleans, where jazz was born, has live music every night of the year: brass bands, zydeco and blues on Frenchmen Street, a traditional jazz hall in the Quarter, second-line parades on Sundays and the Jazz & Heritage Festival in spring. Neither city offers much formal opera or theatre. The difference lies in the clubs and the streets.

Neither city is a place for a wellness break, and in both the spa options are hotel and day spas. The slow moments differ. In Chattanooga that means an afternoon on the riverfront or a porch in Bluff View. In New Orleans it means a morning in a courtyard guesthouse and a streetcar ride under the oaks of St. Charles Avenue, although the Quarter at night undoes the calm.