Detroit or Portland, Maine?

Neither is a beach destination, but Portland has the better beaches. Crescent Beach, Higgins Beach and Pine Point are wide, pretty strands within half an hour, and Old Orchard Beach adds a pier and arcades. The Gulf of Maine stays cold, though, so most people wade rather than swim.

Detroit's choice is narrower: a small beach on Belle Isle and the lawn-backed shore of Lake St. Clair Metropark. Its calm freshwater does get warmer in high summer, so a proper swim is actually easier here.

Portland is the more rewarding place to eat, and meals tend to organise the day. Expect harbour-shack lobster rolls, Maine oysters, chef-run restaurants using local produce and dozens of breweries on the edges of the peninsula.

Detroit's strengths lie elsewhere: Coney Island hot dogs, Detroit-style square pizza, Eastern Market on Saturdays, and the Lebanese and Yemeni cooking of Dearborn. For international flavours it actually beats Portland, but the best meals are scattered and often mean a drive.

Detroit has far more to see. The Detroit Institute of Arts and its Diego Rivera murals could fill a day on their own, and the Charles H. Wright Museum, the Motown Museum and the Dearborn pair of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village add American history in depth. Downtown's Art Deco towers, such as the Guardian Building, are a draw in themselves.

Portland is charming but brief. The Old Port's granite warehouses, the Winslow Homer works at the Portland Museum of Art, Victoria Mansion and Portland Head Light can be covered in a day or two.

Detroit has the bigger night out, with real depth for anyone who cares about electronic music. As the birthplace of techno it has warehouse parties and serious small clubs, alongside cocktail bars in Corktown and Midtown. The catch is that it is scattered, so expect taxis between neighbourhoods.

Portland is a bar town with no club scene. Its pubs, oyster bars and taprooms are packed into a few walkable Old Port streets, which suits a good drink after dinner and an early-ish finish at 1am.

Portland has much more to offer outdoors. Casco Bay's islands are a ferry ride away for walking and cycling, and schooners, sea kayaks and whale-watching cruises leave from the harbour. Cape Elizabeth's rocky shore makes good clifftop walking.

Detroit's outdoors are flat and mostly urban: Belle Isle's Olmsted-designed woods and lagoon, the RiverWalk, and metroparks with wetlands for birdwatching. Neither city has hills nearby, but Portland can at least reach the White Mountains.

From Portland, the Maine coast offers one harbour town after another. Kennebunkport, Ogunquit's Marginal Way, Portsmouth's colonial waterfront, maritime Bath and Camden's windjammers make a varied and scenic set of outings.

Detroit's options are more scattered and inland: the university town of Ann Arbor, Bavarian-themed Frankenmuth, Toledo's fine art museum and a quick crossing to Windsor in Canada. In both cases a car is close to essential.

The two are equally good with children, but in different ways. Detroit has the bigger attractions: a large zoo with a polar bear tunnel, the hands-on Michigan Science Center and Greenfield Village's steam trains. Between them you spend a lot of time in the car.

Portland is smaller and easier, with outdoor fun built around ferries, lighthouses, tide pools and Old Orchard Beach's seaside rides, plus a children's museum for the youngest. It has no zoo or aquarium, though, and really works only in summer.

Portland is easier without a car, as long as you stay on the peninsula. The Old Port, West End and Munjoy Hill are all a short walk apart, though some streets are steep. Ferries run out to the islands, and a train links the city to Boston.

Detroit covers its compact downtown with the People Mover and the QLine up Woodward Avenue. Beyond that, the city sprawls along wide avenues with weak buses. Both cities need a car for anything further out, but in Detroit you need one sooner.

Both cities have a similarly small, independent shopping scene, with no main street to fill a whole afternoon. Portland's boutiques are concentrated on a few Old Port streets of Maine-made pottery and woollens, and the Freeport outlets around L.L.Bean are a short drive away. Detroit's offer is more spread out: Corktown and Midtown makers selling local watches and leather goods, plus a suburban mall if you want big-name brands.

Detroit is much easier on the wallet. Hotels are cheaper than in most big American cities, and its everyday food is filling and cheap, though a hire car and parking add up.

Portland is expensive in summer and on foliage weekends, when peninsula rooms charge big-city rates and seafood dinners run high. Walking everywhere, eating at shacks and food trucks, and visiting off season help a great deal.

Detroit is a real music city, and the gap here is wide. There is the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in Orchestra Hall, opera downtown, and concerts at the Fox Theatre, a 1920s movie palace. Jazz clubs and soul, rock and gospel bands play most nights, and the free jazz festival fills downtown over Labor Day.

Portland has a respectable calendar for its size, with the symphony at Merrill Auditorium, Portland Stage and touring folk acts at the State Theatre. It makes a good evening out but not a reason to choose the city.

Neither city has a spa culture, but Portland is the more restful place. A ferry to a quiet island, a dusk walk on the Eastern Promenade or a waterfront sauna after a cold sea dip all set a slower pace. Detroit runs on work, sport and music, and its quiet moments are mostly limited to a stroll on the RiverWalk or an afternoon on Belle Isle.