Dallas or St. Louis?

Neither city is anywhere near a beach worth the name, so in practice they are level. The small difference is that Dallas has big reservoirs such as Lewisville and Grapevine lakes within reach, with plain sandy park beaches and warm water. In St. Louis the Mississippi and Missouri are unsafe for swimming, and the nearest lakes are a long drive away in the Ozarks, so a pool is the realistic option.

Dallas offers more, mostly through range. Smoked brisket, Tex-Mex, steakhouses and Oak Cliff taco trucks cover the Texan side. The suburbs then add real depth: Vietnamese and Chinese food in Richardson and Garland, Koreatown in Carrollton and South Asian cooking in Irving.

St. Louis has a smaller but more idiosyncratic table, with toasted ravioli, Provel-topped pizza, gooey butter cake and the trattorias of the Hill. It wins on beer and market life, thanks to the Anheuser-Busch brewery and the Saturday Soulard Market, which Dallas has nothing to match.

Both cities have one sight that everyone comes to see: the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Dallas adds a compact Arts District and the Art Deco halls of Fair Park, but beyond those its centre is towers and freeways.

St. Louis has more depth. The Old Courthouse, the free art and history museums in Forest Park, the mosaics of the Cathedral Basilica and the Wainwright Building all sit in a city that has kept whole Victorian streets in Soulard and Lafayette Square. It fills an extra day where Dallas runs out after two.

Dallas has the livelier night out. Deep Ellum's dive bars and murals, Uptown's polished patio and cocktail scene and the rooftops of Lower Greenville give a real choice of crowds, and warm weekends draw big numbers.

St. Louis is lower-key and more local. There are blues taverns in Soulard, dance bars on Washington Avenue and late bars in the Grove, but many streets go quiet early outside baseball season and weekends. In both cities you will take a ride between districts.

St. Louis has better country close by. Within an hour the land rises into wooded Ozark foothills, with caves and river bluffs at Castlewood and Meramec, and further south are the boulders of Elephant Rocks. Forest Park, the river confluence and winter bald eagles near Alton add to it.

Dallas sits on flat prairie, and its outdoor life centres on White Rock Lake, the Katy Trail through Uptown and the Great Trinity Forest. Cedar Ridge Preserve is the nearest proper hiking, and summer heat confines most of it to early mornings.

The two are evenly matched but lean in different directions. From Dallas the clear highlight is Fort Worth, a second city with the Stockyards' cattle drive and the Kimbell Art Museum, reachable by commuter train. After that the choice thins to courthouse squares and the Grapevine tasting rooms.

St. Louis offers history rather than a sister city. Cahokia Mounds, the UNESCO-listed pre-Columbian city, is twenty minutes away, followed by French colonial Ste. Genevieve, the German wine towns of Hermann and Augusta, Mark Twain's Hannibal and Lincoln's Springfield. Nearly all of them need a car.

Both are good with children, and the difference lies in style. Dallas goes big, with Six Flags and a water park in Arlington, two large zoos, the Perot Museum and the State Fair every autumn.

St. Louis has the single most memorable stop in the climbable City Museum. Its zoo and Science Center are free, and the Arch tram pods and a ball game at Busch Stadium round it out. Both involve driving and hot summers.

Both cities expect you to drive, and St. Louis is slightly easier going. MetroLink links the airport, the Central West End, Forest Park, downtown and Clayton, and roads are uncongested with easy parking.

Dallas has the longer DART light-rail network and the train to Fort Worth, but its sights are spread much further apart along busy freeways. Its walkable core is limited to downtown, the Arts District and Uptown, along the free McKinney Avenue streetcar.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. Dallas is a real shopping destination: the city where Neiman Marcus began, with NorthPark Center, the Spanish-style European fashion houses of Highland Park Village and Western boots and hats from everyday to bespoke.

St. Louis offers an afternoon of browsing, mainly the antiques and vintage shops of Cherokee Street, the Delmar Loop and Central West End boutiques. Its big labels are tucked away in suburban malls.

Costs come out much the same, with cheaper hotels than the coastal cities and the same burden of tax, tips and a hire car. St. Louis saves you more on sights, as its zoo, art museum, history museum and science centre are all free. Dallas has plenty of cheap barbecue and tacos, but its Uptown hotels and steakhouses are pricier.

Dallas puts its stages together in one purpose-built Arts District, while St. Louis performs in old movie palaces and, in summer, under the open sky. In Dallas that means I. M. Pei's Meyerson for the symphony, the Winspear for opera and Broadway and the Wyly for theatre, all a short walk apart. After dark, Deep Ellum's clubs and a steady supply of country and dancehall music carry on.

St. Louis's orchestra dates from 1880 and plays in the ornate Powell Hall, and the Fox Theatre in Grand Center takes the touring musicals. The Muny's outdoor shows in Forest Park and the early-summer opera festival make summer its best season for performance. Chuck Berry and W.C. Handy give it a blues story that the National Blues Museum and the Soulard bars keep going.

Neither city is built for a restorative trip, but Dallas has a little more. Its large Korean-style bathhouse, with heated rooms and all-day lounging, is the one distinctive option, alongside the polished hotel spas of Uptown. St. Louis has only ordinary day spas, though its unhurried pace and the Japanese garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden make for a quieter morning than anything in Dallas.