Chicago or Dallas?

Where Dallas has to make do with reservoirs, Chicago has real sand within the city limits. Its lakefront beaches run up the shore of Lake Michigan from Oak Street, right below the Gold Coast towers, to the volleyball crowds at North Avenue. From late June to early September a swim in fresh water fits easily between museums, though the beaches are a bonus rather than the reason to go.

Dallas has nothing like it. The sea at Galveston is too far for a day out, and the reservoirs at Lewisville and Grapevine offer warm water but plain, muddy-brown shores. In practice, cooling off there means a hotel pool or a water park in Arlington.

Both cities are proud of their own staples: deep-dish pizza, Italian beef and the dressed hot dog in Chicago, smoked brisket, Tex-Mex and chicken-fried steak in Dallas. Chicago goes further at both ends. It has a top tier of tasting-menu kitchens along Randolph Street, and its neighbourhood cooking is excellent: Mexican in Pilsen, South Asian on Devon Avenue, Vietnamese on Argyle Street.

Dallas has real range too, but most of it sits in suburban strips in Richardson, Garland and Carrollton. You need a car to reach them, and there is little street life around eating. Barbecue queues and frozen margaritas are the experience worth travelling for.

Chicago is an architecture destination in its own right. The skyscraper took shape in the Loop, the river cruise passes a century of towers, and the Art Institute and the lakefront Museum Campus would anchor a trip by themselves. The only gap is anything older than the 19th century.

Dallas has one sight of truly global interest: the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza, at the window used in the 1963 assassination. Add the compact Arts District with the Nasher's sculpture and the Art Deco halls of Fair Park, and two days covers it. Between those sights, the centre is mostly glass towers and freeways.

Chicago stays out later, with many bars pouring until 4am. Its neighbourhoods each have a distinct night: cocktail and dive bars in Wicker Park and Logan Square, clubs in River North and the gay scene of Northalsted. The dance floors carry the city's history as a birthplace of house music.

Dallas closes at 2am under Texas law. Deep Ellum is its scruffy, late, mural-covered district, and Uptown is the polished patio-and-lounge side. The scene is sociable on warm weekends, but moving between districts means a ride-hail each time.

Neither city has hills, but Chicago makes better use of its flat land. The lakefront path runs about 29km past beaches, harbours and skyline, Lincoln Park sits on a major bird migration route, and the dunes of Indiana Dunes National Park are an hour away.

Dallas offers White Rock Lake's loop, the Katy Trail through Uptown and the hardwoods of the Great Trinity Forest. Its nearest real hiking is on the limestone escarpments of Cedar Ridge. Spring wildflowers are lovely, but summer heat pushes everything outdoors into the early morning.

Dallas has the better day out on its doorstep. Fort Worth is about forty-five minutes away by car or commuter train and feels like a different city: longhorns and saloons at the Stockyards, and the Kimbell Art Museum in Louis Kahn's building. Grapevine's wine-tasting main street and the courthouse squares of McKinney and Denton add easy extras.

From Chicago, Milwaukee is a simple train ride and Oak Park suits architecture fans. Beyond those, Lake Geneva and the Michigan harbour towns need a car, and the prairie offers little else within reach.

Chicago has more for children within a short ride of each other. The Museum of Science and Industry can fill a day, the Museum Campus groups dinosaurs, belugas and a planetarium, and Lincoln Park Zoo is free by the lake. Much of it is reachable without a car. The catch is winter, which is bitterly cold.

Dallas wins on thrill rides, with a big theme park and water park side by side in Arlington and the State Fair's autumn rides. It also has two large zoos and the Perot Museum. Expect plenty of driving, and avoid outdoor days from June to September.

Chicago is far easier without a car. The L runs from both airports into the Loop, and the flat downtown grid puts the park, the Art Institute and the riverfront within walking distance. Getting across neighbourhoods often means a bus along the long avenues, and January wind makes walking hard.

Dallas is built for driving. DART's light rail helps for the airports, Fair Park and Deep Ellum, and the vintage M-Line streetcar links Uptown to downtown. Beyond those areas, distances, patchy pavements and summer heat mean most visitors hire a car or ride-hail.

Both cities do big-name retail well, and Chicago edges ahead because you can walk it. The Magnificent Mile and Oak Street are close together, the old Marshall Field's building on State Street is worth seeing for its Tiffany mosaic ceiling, and Wicker Park and Andersonville add independent and vintage shops.

Dallas is a luxury mall city, home of Neiman Marcus, with NorthPark Center and the Spanish-style Highland Park Village. Its real draw is Western wear: boots, hats and buckles, up to custom-made pieces. Almost every shopping trip involves driving between centres.

Dallas is the cheaper stay. Hotels cost noticeably less, especially along the freeways and in the suburbs, and barbecue and tacos make good meals easy to find at low prices. Much of the saving goes on a hire car or ride-hails, though.

Chicago's downtown hotels, taxes and sit-down restaurants are hard on a budget, especially in summer. It claws some back: the L is good value, and the beaches, Millennium Park and Lincoln Park Zoo cost nothing.

Chicago is worth planning a trip around for its stages. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Lyric Opera are world-class, Steppenwolf, the Goodman and dozens of storefront companies give its theatre unusual depth, and Second City runs improv nightly. Its own electric blues still plays in clubs, and summer brings free concerts at the Pritzker Pavilion.

Dallas has fine buildings in its Arts District, including I. M. Pei's Meyerson Symphony Center and the Winspear Opera House. Deep Ellum's clubs and Texas dancehall music keep live music going most nights, but no single institution draws travellers the way Chicago's do.

Neither city is a place to unwind, and both rely on hotel spas and a Korean-style bathhouse. Chicago adds a steam bathhouse in Wicker Park that has run since the early 1900s, with fierce heat and cold plunges, and warm conservatory glasshouses that make a calm escape in winter. Dallas's version of rest is warmer and slower: a hotel pool or an unhurried morning at White Rock Lake.