Chicago or Pigeon Forge?

Chicago has real beaches. Sandy strands run along Lake Michigan from Oak Street, under the Gold Coast towers, to the volleyball courts at North Avenue, and you can swim in fresh water from late June to early September. They are a pleasant extra in summer, not a reason for a beach trip.

Pigeon Forge lies deep inland in the Tennessee foothills. Swimming there means the water park beside Dollywood, a hotel pool, the shore of Douglas Lake, or wading among the boulders of the national park's streams.

Chicago takes its food seriously. There is deep-dish and tavern-cut pizza, Italian beef and tasting menus on Randolph Street, and in Pilsen and Little Village you'll find Mexican cooking that rivals anything north of the border. Each neighbourhood offers a different cuisine, from Devon Avenue to Argyle Street.

Pigeon Forge feeds you generously rather than interestingly. The Parkway has pancake houses, Southern buffets, barbecue and national chains, plus moonshine tastings and fudge. For a memorable meal, people drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

Chicago is where the skyscraper came of age, and a river cruise past the Loop's early steel-frame towers, the Rookery and the glass blocks by Mies van der Rohe makes the point quickly. Add the Art Institute, the Museum Campus and Frank Lloyd Wright's houses in Hyde Park and Oak Park, and you have days of looking.

Pigeon Forge's sights are built to entertain: a half-scale Titanic, illusion museums and car collections. Its real heritage is the Old Mill of 1830 and the craft demonstrations at Dollywood. The log cabins and churches inside the national park tell more of the mountain story.

After dark the gap is wide. Chicago's bars pour until 4am, and a night can move from cocktail and dive bars in Wicker Park to River North clubs that carry on the city's house-music roots, or to the gay bars of Northalsted.

Evenings in Pigeon Forge mean go-karts and lit-up attraction complexes that wind down around ten, with a few brewpubs and moonshine rooms for adults. Most grown-ups who want a proper night out drive to Gatlinburg.

Chicago's outdoors is its lake. A 29km shore path is good for walking or cycling, Lincoln and Jackson Parks offer birding on a migration route, and you can kayak on the river among the towers. Real trails at Indiana Dunes or Starved Rock are an hour or more away, across flat land.

Here Pigeon Forge is clearly ahead. The Great Smoky Mountains rise above 2,000m half an hour up the road, with Laurel Falls, the Alum Cave climb to Mount LeConte, the Appalachian Trail along the crest and black bears in Cades Cove, plus wildflowers in spring and colour in October.

Neither city is a great base for excursions, and the two lists carry about the same weight. From Chicago, the easy option is Milwaukee by train, with Oak Park's Wright houses on the doorstep and Lake Geneva or the harbour towns of Michigan within reach by car.

Pigeon Forge's outings are all by road. Gatlinburg and Knoxville are close, the Cherokee museum and Oconaluftee village lie over Newfound Gap, and Asheville's Biltmore Estate makes the fullest day out. Chicago gives you cities and lakesides, while Pigeon Forge gives you mountain towns and Cherokee history.

Both work very well with children, in opposite ways. Chicago's draw is its museums: the coal mine and U-boat at the Museum of Science and Industry, dinosaurs and belugas on the Museum Campus, plus the free Lincoln Park Zoo and Navy Pier. You can reach all of them without a car.

Pigeon Forge is a resort built for families. It centres on Dollywood and its water park, with go-karts, mountain coasters and cabins that sleep several households. The catch there is driving and traffic between stops, while in Chicago it is the bitter winter.

You don't need a car in Chicago. The L runs from both airports to the Loop, and downtown's main sights are a short walk apart on a flat grid. Getting between neighbourhoods often takes a bus and some time, and the January wind makes walking hard.

Pigeon Forge is a long multi-lane strip where you need a car all day. The trolley helps on busy days but doesn't reach the cabins or the trailheads, and the Parkway jams in summer, in October and over Christmas.

Chicago has far more range. There are flagships and vertical malls on the Magnificent Mile, luxury labels on Oak Street, the Tiffany ceiling of the old Marshall Field's on State Street, and independent boutiques in Wicker Park and Andersonville.

Pigeon Forge offers outlet malls and souvenirs, with no fashion to speak of. What it has that Chicago lacks is local craft: pottery and quilts near the Old Mill, and the brooms, baskets and woodwork made in the studios above Gatlinburg.

Chicago is the more expensive stay. Downtown hotels cost a lot, taxes are high and sit-down meals are expensive, although taquerias, hot dog stands, the L and the free lakefront, parks and zoo help.

Pigeon Forge goes easier on the budget. Motel rooms and rental cabins are plentiful, a large cabin split between families works out cheaply per person, and buffets and pancake houses are inexpensive. The money goes on theme park tickets, dinner shows and the car.

Chicago is one of the great stages. It has the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera, the Goodman and Steppenwolf, dozens of storefront companies, nightly improv at Second City, and blues and jazz clubs playing late. Summer adds free concerts at the Pritzker Pavilion.

Pigeon Forge has plenty of shows, but all in one style: country and gospel revues, Southern comedy, magic and dinner spectacles along the Parkway, plus bluegrass at Dollywood. They are good fun with the family, but for an orchestra or serious theatre you would drive to Knoxville.

Neither is a place people visit for rest, and each offers its quiet in a different form. Chicago has bathing: the old Russian-and-Turkish bathhouse in Wicker Park with its steam rooms and cold plunges, a Korean-style jjimjilbang in the suburbs, and the warm glasshouses of the Lincoln Park and Garfield Park conservatories in winter.

In Pigeon Forge, calm means a hillside cabin with a porch, a fire and a private hot tub facing the ridges, booked well away from the neon of the Parkway.