Chicago or Detroit?

Chicago has a proper urban beach season. More than twenty sandy beaches line Lake Michigan inside the city, from Oak Street right under the Gold Coast towers to the volleyball crowd at North Avenue, so you can go from a museum to the sand in an afternoon.

Detroit has the small beach on Belle Isle and the shallow, calm water of Lake St. Clair Metropark, which warms nicely in high summer but is a drive of about forty minutes. In both cities swimming is a matter of a few summer weeks.

Each city has its own pizza and its own hot dog: deep-dish and tavern-cut against Detroit's square, crisp-edged slices, and the Chicago dog against the chilli-smothered Coney. Beyond that, Chicago goes further. It has a fine-dining tier on Randolph Street in the West Loop and serious neighbourhood cooking, from the Mexican kitchens of Pilsen to Devon Avenue and Argyle Street.

Detroit's food is less varied but has some real highlights. The Lebanese and Yemeni bakeries and grills of Dearborn are the standout, followed by Eastern Market on Saturdays and the Polish bakeries of Hamtramck. Top-end restaurants are fewer, though, and many of the best meals mean a drive.

Both have early skyscrapers, but Chicago is where the skyscraper was invented. The Loop's towers, from the Rookery to Mies van der Rohe, seen from a river boat, outclass Detroit's handful of Art Deco showpieces. Add the Art Institute, the Museum Campus and Frank Lloyd Wright's houses in Hyde Park and Oak Park, and the sights are packed close and easy to link up.

Detroit has a few things of the first rank: the Rivera murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Guardian and Fisher buildings, the Motown Museum, and a full day at the Henry Ford and Greenfield Village. Between them lie long stretches with little to see.

Chicago's nights run late, with many bars pouring until 4am, and each district has its own character: cocktail and dive bars in Wicker Park and Logan Square, dance clubs in River North and the gay bars of Northalsted. House music was born here and still drives its dance floors.

Detroit is the home of techno, and its warehouse parties and small, serious clubs matter to electronic music fans. Beyond those, the bars of Corktown and Midtown are few and scattered, with taxis between them, and weeknights are quiet.

Neither city has hills, and in both the outdoors means water. Chicago's 29km lakefront path, with the skyline on one side and open lake on the other, is the better single outing. Indiana Dunes and the sandstone canyons of Starved Rock make a proper day in the countryside.

Detroit's answer is Belle Isle, the island park Olmsted helped design, along with the RiverWalk and kayaking on the river. A ring of metroparks adds wetlands, forest trails and good autumn colour. It is all pleasant but smaller in scale.

Neither city is a great base for excursions, and the main difference is how you travel. From Chicago, Milwaukee is an easy train ride and Oak Park sits on the city's edge, while Lake Geneva and the harbour towns of Michigan need a car.

From Detroit nearly everything means driving, but the choice is wider: the university town of Ann Arbor, Bavarian-styled Frankenmuth, the Toledo art museum and the roller coasters of Cedar Point. Windsor, just across the river, adds Canada to the trip if you bring a passport.

Chicago keeps its children's sights close together. The dinosaurs, aquarium and planetarium of the Museum Campus are next to one another, the Museum of Science and Industry with its coal mine and U-boat fills a day, and Lincoln Park Zoo is free. Navy Pier and the climbing walls of Maggie Daley Park fill the hours in between.

Detroit has good single attractions, above all the Detroit Zoo's polar bear tunnel and the steam trains of Greenfield Village. They are spread across the metro area, though, and each one means a drive.

This is where the two cities differ most. In Chicago the L brings you from either airport into the Loop, and the flat, gridded centre is easy to walk. The main drawback is the long bus rides between outlying neighbourhoods.

Detroit's People Mover and the QLine streetcar on Woodward cover downtown, Midtown and New Center, and that is about all. Dearborn, the zoo and almost every day trip mean a hire car or ride-hailing.

Chicago has the full big-city range: the flagships of the Magnificent Mile, luxury labels on Oak Street, the old Marshall Field's store under its Tiffany ceiling on State Street, and independent shops in Wicker Park and Andersonville.

Detroit has no shopping street to compare. Its shops are smaller and more local, with Detroit-made watches, leather goods and prints in Midtown and Corktown and local crafts at Eastern Market. That kind of market is something Chicago's shopping mostly lacks.

Detroit is the cheaper of the two. Hotel rooms cost clearly less than in downtown Chicago, and casual food is cheap and good. The catch is the hire car most visitors need, with parking on top.

Chicago's high hotel taxes and expensive sit-down dining make it the costlier trip. Against that, you can do without a car, and the lakefront, beaches, Millennium Park and Lincoln Park Zoo cost nothing.

Both are serious music cities with a sound of their own: blues and house in Chicago, Motown, jazz and techno in Detroit. Each also has a fine orchestra. Chicago's edge is breadth, with the Lyric Opera, the Goodman and Steppenwolf, dozens of small storefront theatres and nightly improv at Second City. Detroit has nothing like that depth of local theatre.

Detroit's evenings revolve around Orchestra Hall, the lavish Fox Theatre and live bands in small venues. The free jazz festival fills downtown over Labor Day weekend.

Neither is a place to unwind, but Chicago has more ways to do it. A Wicker Park bathhouse has run its steam rooms and cold plunges since the early 1900s, and a Korean-style jjimjilbang in the northern suburbs adds heated rooms and pools. On a winter afternoon, the warm glasshouses of the Lincoln Park and Garfield Park conservatories are a calm escape from the cold.

Detroit has no bathing tradition, only hotel and day spas. Its quieter hours come from a slow walk along the RiverWalk or an afternoon on Belle Isle.