Detroit or Gatlinburg?

Neither is a place to come for swimming, but Detroit at least has sand. Belle Isle has a small beach in the river, and Lake St. Clair Metropark has a long, calm, shallow shore that warms up nicely in high summer.

Gatlinburg's version is a cold mountain river. People tube on the Little River near Townsend or drive to Douglas Lake, while the current at the jumping spots calls for real caution. For most visitors, the cabin hot tub is where they get wet.

Detroit eats much better. There are chilli-covered Coney dogs at diner counters, square crisp-edged pizza and Saturdays at Eastern Market. Above all there are the communities: Lebanese and Yemeni grills and bakeries in Dearborn, Polish bakeries in Hamtramck and the kitchens of Mexicantown.

Gatlinburg feeds a resort crowd: pancake breakfasts, barbecue, fudge and moonshine tastings along the Parkway. Good Appalachian trout, country ham and stack cake do exist, but you have to seek them out, and serious eaters drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

This is the widest gap between the two. Detroit has a museum of national standing in the Detroit Institute of Arts, the house where Motown began, the Charles H. Wright Museum and a full day at the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn. The Guardian and Fisher buildings add some of America's finest early skyscraper interiors.

Gatlinburg's town centre is an observation tower and amusement strip. Its heritage lives in the weavers' and potters' studios on the Arts and Crafts Community loop, and in the pre-park log cabins and mills at Cades Cove, which you reach as an outing into the park.

Detroit is the city where techno began, and it still has serious small clubs and warehouse parties, plus cocktail bars and taprooms in Corktown and Midtown. The catch is the distances: you take taxis between neighbourhoods rather than walking from bar to bar.

Gatlinburg's evening is a walk along the lit Parkway, a moonshine tasting and perhaps a brewery terrace, and the street is quiet by late night. Most visitors go back up to the cabin instead.

Gatlinburg sits at the entrance to one of America's great mountain parks. Hardwood forest and streams begin where the Parkway ends. Trails range from short walks to Grotto Falls up to the climb to Mount LeConte, and the Newfound Gap road rises to Clingmans Dome at about 2,025m. In spring there are synchronous fireflies, and October brings famous foliage.

Detroit's outdoors are gentle and flat. You get Olmsted's woods and lagoon on Belle Isle, cycling along the RiverWalk, kayaking on Lake St. Clair and birdwatching in the metroparks. It makes for pleasant afternoons, but not a reason to travel.

Gatlinburg has the better outings. Asheville and the Biltmore Estate are about an hour and a half away. The mountain crossing to Cherokee and its museum of the Eastern Band is a fine drive in itself, and Bryson City's heritage railway is close by.

Detroit's options are agreeable but rarely exciting: leafy Ann Arbor, Toledo's excellent art museum, Bavarian-themed Frankenmuth, and Windsor across the river if you bring a passport. In both places you will need a car for nearly all of them.

Gatlinburg is designed around families. The Parkway runs past an aquarium, mirror mazes, mini golf and alpine coasters, Dollywood and its water park are a short drive away, and big cabins with games rooms suit several families staying together. In the park, children can earn junior ranger badges.

Detroit offers good single days rather than a whole trip: the polar bear tunnel at the zoo in Royal Oak, the hands-on Michigan Science Center, and steam trains at Greenfield Village. Each means a drive. Gatlinburg's own drawback is the summer queues and crawling traffic.

Both are car places with a small walkable core, but the problems differ. In Detroit it is distance. The People Mover and the QLine streetcar cover downtown, Midtown and New Center well, but Dearborn, the zoo and everything beyond means driving across a wide, spread-out city.

In Gatlinburg it is congestion and gradient. The Parkway strip is walkable and the trolley runs to Pigeon Forge, but cabins sit up steep, winding roads, and park traffic can stop moving on October weekends.

Detroit has a slight edge and more variety. Midtown and Corktown boutiques sell vintage clothes and Detroit-made watches, leather and print, and Eastern Market adds local crafts. Big brands mean a drive to a suburban mall.

Gatlinburg's shopping is mostly fudge and T-shirts, with one real exception: the Arts and Crafts Community loop, where you buy quilts, brooms and pottery straight from the maker. For brands, people head to the outlets in Pigeon Forge.

Detroit is a little easier on the wallet. Hotel rooms cost less than in most big American cities, Coney dogs and Middle Eastern meals are good value, and the streetcar is cheap, though a hire car, parking and tips add up.

Gatlinburg can be cheap when a group shares a cabin midweek, and the national park itself costs little. Paid attractions and Dollywood are where a family's budget goes, and rates jump in October and over Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Detroit is a proper music city. The symphony plays in the admired Orchestra Hall, the opera has its own restored house, and the Fox Theatre hosts big shows. There is jazz all year, culminating in the free street festival on Labor Day weekend, and soul and rock bands play small rooms.

Gatlinburg offers mountain music and family entertainment: bluegrass in the moonshine tasting rooms, and dinner shows, gospel revues and magic acts in Pigeon Forge. For an orchestra, you have to go to Knoxville.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and spas in both are limited to a few hotel and day spas. Gatlinburg comes out ahead because of the way people stay there: a secluded hillside cabin, a hot tub on the deck and mist on the ridges, well above the noise of the Parkway.

Detroit's slower moments are a walk along the RiverWalk or an afternoon on Belle Isle, in a city where work, sport and music set the pace.