Denver or Kansas City?

Neither city is a beach destination, and both are about as far from the sea as you can get in America. Denver's swimming means the sandy shores of the Cherry Creek and Chatfield reservoirs on the city's edge, plus mountain lakes too cold for most people even in July. Kansas City has similar lake beaches in county parks around the metro area. In both cities a visitor is more likely to cool off in a hotel or public pool.

Kansas City has the stronger reason to come and eat. Its barbecue, slow-smoked over hickory with a thick sweet sauce and burnt ends as the speciality, is a tradition you can only taste properly here, and touring the smokehouses near the old stockyards and 18th and Vine makes a trip in itself. The steakhouses keep the cattle-town past going.

Denver's appeal is drinking more than eating. The taprooms in RiNo and around Coors Field are the main event, and the food worth seeking out is green chile, breakfast burritos and the Vietnamese and Mexican cooking along Federal Boulevard. You'll eat well in either city, but neither has much fine dining.

Kansas City has more to see. The Nelson-Atkins is a major encyclopaedic museum with outstanding Chinese art, the National WWI Museum under the Liberty Memorial is the country's main museum of that war, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and American Jazz Museum at 18th and Vine have no equivalent anywhere.

Denver's sights cluster around Civic Center Park: the gold-domed State Capitol, the Denver Art Museum with its Native American collection, and the Clyfford Still Museum, given over to a single painter. It is a younger gold-rush city with less depth. Both cities have a grand Beaux-Arts Union Station, and both fill two or three days.

Nights out are much alike: bars and breweries, small club scenes and the biggest crowds on game nights. Denver's nightlife leans on beer, with taprooms in RiNo's warehouses, dive bars along East Colfax and quieter neighbourhood evenings in Highland. The altitude makes every drink count for more.

Kansas City's nightlife is split between districts, from the enclosed sports bars of Power and Light to the older student strip in Westport. You'll need a ride between them, and midweek the city goes quiet early.

This is where the two cities differ most. From Denver, the red sandstone of Red Rocks and the trails above Golden are half an hour away, the Flatirons are about 40 minutes away, and summits over 4,000m and the alpine tundra of Rocky Mountain National Park are within about two hours. Bike paths along Cherry Creek and the South Platte run through the city itself.

Kansas City sits in rolling prairie and farmland along the Missouri and Kansas rivers. It is pleasant enough, with Swope Park, the Loose Park rose garden and reservoir walks, but it is never dramatic, and the nearest real hiking country in the Ozarks is several hours away.

Denver has the better choice of outings. Boulder sits under the Flatirons, Georgetown and Idaho Springs are Victorian mining towns up the mountain corridor with a narrow-gauge railway, and Manitou Springs and Estes Park put spa towns and national park gateways within reach. Even a two-hour drive to Breckenridge makes a full day.

Kansas City's outings are pleasant half days rather than highlights: the college main street of Lawrence, the antebellum houses and vineyards of Weston, and the Pony Express museum in St Joseph. Both cities need a car for almost all of these.

Both are easy cities for children, but the days look different. Denver's big draws are City Park, which holds the zoo and the nature and science museum with its dinosaurs and planetarium, and the cluster of children's museum, aquarium and amusement park by the South Platte. Older children get the mountains, with easy trails and scenic railways close by, though parents from sea level need to watch the altitude and the sun.

Kansas City offers more theme-park fun. Worlds of Fun has roller coasters and a water park, while Science City and the Legoland Discovery Centre at Crown Center make a good rainy-day plan. Baseball at Kauffman Stadium is a relaxed family evening.

Denver is the easier of the two without a car, at least in the centre. Its flat downtown has a free shuttle along the 16th Street Mall, a train runs from the airport to Union Station, and light rail reaches the suburbs.

Kansas City relies on one streetcar line along Main Street, from the River Market down through Union Station towards Midtown. That allows a car-free day or two, but the buses are thin and the pavements give out quickly. Both cities need a hired car for the outlying sights, and in Denver that means the mountains.

There is little between them, and neither is a shopping destination, but each has its own specialities. Denver is the place for outdoor gear and Western wear, with big flagship stores, boots and hats, along with Cherry Creek's mall and boutiques and the vintage shops of South Broadway.

Kansas City's Country Club Plaza is the more attractive place to walk, a 1920s Spanish-style district of tiled towers. The Crossroads galleries and the thrift and record shops of Westport cover the independent side, and souvenirs mostly mean bottles of barbecue sauce.

Kansas City is somewhat cheaper. Downtown hotels cost noticeably less, parking is easy, a barbecue lunch goes a long way, and the Nelson-Atkins charges nothing for general entry. Family tickets to the theme park and the ball games still add up.

Denver's hotel bills climb during conventions and ski season. Both cities need a hired car and add tax and a tip to every meal. Denver's best savings are its free trails and mountain scenery, while Kansas City's are its cheaper rooms.

Both cities are strong for their size, and each has one thing it is known for. Denver's is Red Rocks, a summer concert between two sandstone monoliths that fans travel across the country to see, backed by the many stages of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and the jazz rooms of Five Points.

In Kansas City it is jazz itself, the style of Count Basie and Charlie Parker, still played late into the night in clubs around 18th and Vine. Its symphony, opera and ballet perform under the pleated shell of the Kauffman Center.

Denver does relaxation better, mainly because the mountains bring natural hot springs within reach. The historic mineral pools and steam caves of Idaho Springs are under an hour away, and larger hot-spring resorts make good overnight trips. The sunny, outdoor pace of the city helps too.

Kansas City has hotel and day spas and one old mineral-water resort at Excelsior Springs. Here, unwinding mostly means a slow morning in the Loose Park rose garden or the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park.