Chicago or San Francisco?

Chicago has the beach life San Francisco lacks. From late June to early September the sandy Lake Michigan strands at Oak Street and North Avenue are warm enough for a swim in fresh water, and they make an easy afternoon right beside the towers.

San Francisco's shore is grander to look at, with Ocean Beach running for miles and Baker Beach framing the Golden Gate. But the cold Pacific and the rip currents make it a place for sunset walks and bonfires, and only Chicago lets you get in the water without a wetsuit.

Both cities eat at the highest level, so the difference is in character. Chicago's draw is its own hearty canon of deep-dish and tavern-cut pizza, Italian beef and the fully dressed hot dog, along with the West Loop's restaurant row and the Mexican kitchens of Pilsen.

San Francisco cooks from its produce: bay seafood, Dungeness crab, sourdough and the Mission burrito, with the Ferry Building market as a morning outing and Napa and Sonoma wines on every list. Go to Chicago for hearty local classics and to San Francisco for markets, seafood and wine.

Chicago gives a sightseer more, mainly because its architecture is a subject in its own right. You get the Loop's early steel-frame towers, Mies van der Rohe's glass, the river cruise and Frank Lloyd Wright's houses in Oak Park, with the Art Institute and the Museum Campus on top.

San Francisco's appeal lies in images everyone already knows: Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars and the painted Victorians, backed by SFMOMA and the de Young. Both cities were rebuilt after great fires, so neither has old heritage, but San Francisco's essentials take fewer days to cover.

Chicago is the better night out. Its bars can pour until 4am, two hours past San Francisco's cut-off, and the scene runs from cocktail rooms in Wicker Park to the clubs of River North, where dance nights draw on the city's role in the birth of house music.

San Francisco has creative cocktail bars in the Mission, old saloons in North Beach and warehouse clubs in SoMa, but weeknights are often quiet and the evening is spread across districts. Each has a famous gay quarter, Northalsted in Chicago and the Castro in San Francisco.

For the outdoors, San Francisco is in another league. Lands End, the Presidio and Golden Gate Park are inside the city, and just across the Golden Gate lie the Marin Headlands, the redwoods of Muir Woods and the trails of Mount Tamalpais, with whale watching and bay kayaking besides.

Chicago's landscape is the lake: a long shoreline path for cycling or running, and good birding in Lincoln and Jackson Parks. For dunes or canyons you drive an hour or more to Indiana Dunes or Starved Rock, and there are no hills anywhere near.

Chicago's outings take more effort for less reward. Apart from Frank Lloyd Wright's houses in Oak Park on the city's edge, the only easy trip without a car is the train to Milwaukee, another brewing town on the same lake shore, so it feels more like a second helping of the Midwest than a change of scene. Lake Geneva's mansions and the orchards and harbour towns of southwest Michigan mean driving across flat prairie.

San Francisco gives you far more variety within an hour or two, some of it with no car at all. A ferry takes you to Sausalito or Tiburon and a train to Berkeley, while the wineries of Napa and Sonoma lie to the north and Santa Cruz, Monterey and Carmel lie along the coast to the south, so you could spend a week there with a different kind of day out each morning.

Chicago is the easier city with children. The Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum's dinosaurs and the Shedd Aquarium are close to one another, Lincoln Park Zoo is free, and the flat centre and lifeguarded summer beaches keep days out simple, as long as you avoid the deep winter cold.

San Francisco has its own strong pair in the Exploratorium and the California Academy of Sciences, plus cable cars and the sea lions at Fisherman's Wharf. But the steep hills are hard work with a pushchair, the sea is too cold for paddling, and some downtown streets are better skipped on foot.

Neither city needs a car, but the effort is of a different kind. Chicago is flat and gridded and the L runs from both airports into the Loop, though its spoke-shaped lines mean taking buses between neighbourhoods, and the January wind makes walking hard.

San Francisco is compact, with BART, Muni, streetcars and cable cars all on one card, but its hills turn a short walk into a climb. There a car is only worth having for wine country or the coast.

Chicago is the stronger shopping city. The flagships and vertical malls of the Magnificent Mile, the luxury labels on Oak Street and the old Marshall Field's store under its Tiffany ceiling give it scale, and Wicker Park and Andersonville add independent shops.

San Francisco's main district is Union Square, but browsing is more rewarding in the Hayes Valley boutiques, the bookshops of Valencia Street and the vintage shops of Haight-Ashbury. The Ferry Building's edible souvenirs fill a gap that Chicago, with few markets, leaves open.

Neither is cheap, but Chicago is easier on a budget. Downtown hotels and sit-down meals cost a lot and the taxes add up, yet staying outside the Loop, eating at taquerias and pizza places and spending time at the free zoo and lakefront bring the costs down.

San Francisco is among the most expensive American cities to visit, with high hotel rates across the centre and steep drinks. Mission taquerias, Chinatown dim sum and free coastal trails help, but the savings don't go as far.

Both cities have major orchestras and opera companies, so Chicago's edge comes from depth. It adds one of the country's deepest theatre scenes, from Steppenwolf and the Goodman down to small storefront companies, along with Second City improv and electric blues in clubs on the North and South Sides.

San Francisco's highlights are the country's oldest professional ballet company, the SFJAZZ Center and the Fillmore's rock history. Ballet lovers may prefer the west coast, but for theatre, comedy and blues Chicago has more on any given night.

Neither is a place to switch off, but San Francisco gives you a little more room to slow down. Its Japantown bathhouse, its yoga studios and the Japanese Tea Garden help, and the real prize is the mud baths and mineral pools of Calistoga at the top of Napa Valley.

Chicago's answer is the old Russian-and-Turkish bathhouse in Wicker Park, a Korean-style spa in the suburbs and the warm conservatory glasshouses in winter. Beyond those it stays a busy big city, with no hot springs within reach.