Detroit or Virginia Beach?

Virginia Beach was built around its beach, and it shows. A broad strip of pale Oceanfront sand with lifeguards and a boardwalk sits beside calm Chesapeake Bay water for toddlers, and the dunes at Sandbridge are quieter, so a whole week can be spent by the water.

Detroit has only the small beach on Belle Isle and the lawn-backed shore of Lake St. Clair Metropark. The lake water is fresh, shallow and cooler than the Atlantic in August, and the swimming season is shorter. It makes a pleasant afternoon off, not the point of the trip.

Detroit is the more rewarding place to eat. It has its own dishes in the chilli-topped Coney dog and the square, crisp-edged pizza, Eastern Market on a Saturday, and the restaurants of Corktown and Midtown. Above all it has the immigrant kitchens: Lebanese and Yemeni food in Dearborn, Mexicantown, and Polish bakeries in Hamtramck.

Virginia Beach does one thing well, which is seafood. Lynnhaven oysters, blue crab and she-crab soup are best at the dockside places near the inlet. Away from that, the resort strip leans on chains and buffets, and keen eaters often head to Norfolk instead.

The gap here is wide. Detroit has a museum of national standing in the Detroit Institute of Arts, with Rivera's Detroit Industry murals, plus the Charles H. Wright Museum, the Motown house and the Henry Ford complex in Dearborn. Its early skyscrapers are sights in their own right, from the Art Deco banking hall of the Guardian Building downtown to the gilded Fisher Building up in New Center.

Virginia Beach offers the Cape Henry landing site and its 1792 lighthouse, the Adam Thoroughgood House, a small art museum and the King Neptune statue. A morning covers it, and for serious history you drive out to the colonial sites.

Detroit's nights have more character, mostly because of techno. It has warehouse parties, small clubs where the music comes first, and the electronic festival on Memorial Day weekend, along with dive bars, cocktail bars and taprooms in Corktown and Midtown. The catch is that these are scattered, so a night out means taxis between neighbourhoods.

Virginia Beach is a summer-only strip of beach bars, rooftop decks and sports bars on Atlantic Avenue, cheerful and loud, with sailors and vacationers mixing. Town Center is calmer. Out of season it goes quiet early, and there is barely a club scene.

Both cities are flat, but Virginia Beach has more wild ground on its doorstep. First Landing State Park has cypress swamp, maritime forest and dunes, and Back Bay and False Cape protect an empty barrier spit you reach on foot or by bike. Add surfing, dolphin-watching by kayak and winter waterfowl, and the outdoors become a real part of a trip.

In Detroit the outdoors means Olmsted's Belle Isle, cycling the RiverWalk, boating on Lake St. Clair and the metroparks' trails and autumn colour. It is pleasant, but long winters cut it short.

Virginia Beach has the stronger outing in the Historic Triangle, about an hour away, where Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown together tell the story from first settlement to revolution. Norfolk's battleship and waterfront are close, and Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks makes a good longer drive.

Detroit's options are agreeable but smaller. You can visit the university town of Ann Arbor, Bavarian-styled Frankenmuth, Windsor across the border with a passport, or Toledo's art museum. Both cities need a car for almost all of these.

Virginia Beach is set up for families in a way Detroit is not. The aquarium has sea turtles and otters, the bay beaches suit toddlers, and the water park, mini-golf and boardwalk bike rentals are all close to the hotels. Colonial Williamsburg and a large theme park are within about an hour.

Detroit has some fine single attractions in the large zoo in Royal Oak, Greenfield Village's steam trains and the hands-on science centre. They are spread across the metro area, though, and winter limits them.

Both cities are built for cars, and most visitors end up driving in either. The difference is in what you can do without one. In Detroit, the People Mover and the QLine streetcar link downtown, the theatres and the Midtown museums, so a culture-focused stay can largely go car-free. In Virginia Beach, car-free means staying on the Oceanfront and using the boardwalk and the summer trolley, and summer traffic into the resort can be heavy.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Detroit gives the curious shopper a little more. Midtown and Corktown have independent boutiques, vintage shops and Detroit-made watches and leather goods, and Eastern Market has crafts on market days. Virginia Beach is mostly malls, Town Center chains and souvenir stores, and its surf shops, which have deep local roots, are the one real exception.

Detroit is the easier city on the budget. Hotel rooms there cost less than in most large American cities, and the cheap, good everyday food goes a long way. The exceptions are big game and concert nights, when downtown rooms rise sharply.

Virginia Beach's costs follow the season. In summer, oceanfront rooms and beach houses are expensive, especially at weekends, but they drop sharply out of season, and the beach and state parks are close to free. In both cities you should budget for a hire car, tips and sales tax.

Detroit is the place for an evening of music. The symphony plays in Orchestra Hall, the opera has its restored house, and the Fox Theatre and the Fisher Theatre host big shows. The Labor Day jazz festival, long-established jazz clubs and live soul and rock in small venues most nights complete the picture.

Virginia Beach offers summer amphitheatre concerts, free boardwalk stages and a mid-sized arts centre at Town Center. For opera or the symphony, you go to Norfolk.

Neither city has a spa tradition, and in both, wellness means hotel spas and suburban day spas. Virginia Beach is the more restful of the two because of its pace. Early mornings on the boardwalk and quiet spring and autumn weeks by the sea are calming, though high summer is crowded. Detroit runs on work, sport and music, and a slow afternoon on Belle Isle is about as restful as it gets.