Detroit or Washington DC?

Neither is a beach destination, but Detroit at least lets you swim within the day. Belle Isle has a small sandy beach in the river, and the calm, shallow water at Lake St. Clair Metropark, around forty minutes away, makes a decent summer afternoon from July to early September.

Washington's nearest sand is on the brackish Chesapeake Bay about an hour away, with jellyfish late in the season, and the Atlantic resorts are a weekend trip. In a DC summer the hotel pool is the realistic option.

Washington eats better overall, with a deeper run of serious kitchens around Penn Quarter, Logan Circle and the waterfront, Ethiopian cooking in Shaw and U Street, and Chesapeake crabs and oysters in season. Its weakness is a corporate streak of steakhouses near the offices.

Detroit has more of a cuisine of its own: chilli-smothered Coney dogs at old diner counters and crisp-edged square pizza. Its best meals come from Dearborn's Arab American bakeries and grills, Mexicantown and Hamtramck's Polish bakeries, which usually means a drive. Both cities have an Eastern Market, but Detroit's is a whole 19th-century district on a Saturday.

Washington is in another league here. The Smithsonian museums along the Mall, the National Gallery and the monuments from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial add up to a week of sights, almost all free and within walking distance.

Detroit has a few things of real weight: the Detroit Institute of Arts with Diego Rivera's murals, the Motown Museum, the Henry Ford and Greenfield Village, and some superb Art Deco towers downtown. But they are spread across a large, uneven city, and you travel between them rather than wander.

The two are fairly evenly matched, but the nights feel very different. Detroit's is about the music: techno, warehouse parties and after-hours events, plus dive bars and taprooms scattered across Corktown, Midtown and downtown, which means taxis between them.

Washington is a bar city fed by young staffers and students. The 14th Street and U Street corridor, Adams Morgan's late strip and the H Street dives make a night out easier to walk between, though much of it is after-work drinking and early weeknights are quiet.

Washington has far more to offer outdoors. Rock Creek Park runs a wooded valley through the city, the C&O Canal towpath heads up the Potomac from Georgetown, Great Falls is half an hour away, and the Blue Ridge and Shenandoah are within reach for proper ridge hikes.

Detroit's outdoors are flat and water-based: Olmsted's Belle Isle, the RiverWalk, paddling on Lake St. Clair and metropark trails with good autumn colour, but no hills.

Washington wins easily, because it sits in the middle of early American history. Old Town Alexandria and Mount Vernon are close, Baltimore and even Philadelphia work by train, and Gettysburg, Antietam and Harpers Ferry are all within a couple of hours.

From Detroit the outings are agreeable rather than memorable: leafy Ann Arbor, Bavarian-themed Frankenmuth, Toledo's art museum or a hop across to Windsor. Almost all of them need a car.

Washington is the easier city with children. The dinosaurs at Natural History, the rockets at Air and Space and the National Zoo are all free, the Mall is a vast lawn to run on, and the Metro has lifts at every station for buggies.

Detroit has good attractions of its own, especially the large zoo in Royal Oak and the steam trains and horse-drawn rides of Greenfield Village, but they are scattered and nearly every outing starts with a drive.

This is where the two differ most in daily practice. In Washington the Metro reaches most of what a visitor wants, including Arlington, Alexandria and the airport, the flat grid is good for walking and bike-share fills the gaps, so a car is only needed for the countryside.

Detroit's People Mover and QLine streetcar cover downtown, Midtown and New Center well enough. Beyond that the buses are slow and infrequent, and Dearborn, the zoo and everything outside the city realistically mean a hire car or ride-hailing.

The difference is mostly one of scale. Detroit's shopping is small and local: Detroit-made watches, leather goods and print in the Midtown and Corktown boutiques, crafts and flowers at Eastern Market on market days, and specialist sweets and groceries in Mexicantown and Dearborn. For big-name brands you drive out to a suburban mall.

Washington has more to fill an afternoon. Georgetown's M Street and Wisconsin Avenue run with boutiques and antique shops in old brick buildings, CityCenterDC gathers the luxury labels downtown, and the Smithsonian and National Gallery shops are good for books and prints. It is still a sideline rather than a reason to go.

Detroit is the cheaper stay. Hotel rooms cost noticeably less, and everyday eating is good value, though a hire car and parking claw some of that back.

Washington's rooms and restaurants are priced for expense accounts, especially in cherry blossom season. What softens it is that the sightseeing itself is mostly free, and staying in Arlington or near a suburban Metro station can lower the bill.

Both cities give you a full evening calendar, but their strengths differ. Detroit is a music city first: the symphony in Orchestra Hall, the restored opera house, the Fox Theatre, and jazz, soul and rock in small venues most nights, with the free jazz festival over Labor Day.

Washington leads on theatre, from Arena Stage and the Shakespeare Theatre Company to the Folger's playhouse and Ford's Theatre. Its music clusters around U Street, with go-go as the local sound and lawn concerts at Wolf Trap in summer.

Neither city is somewhere to come to unwind, and both lack any spa tradition. Washington has a little more on hand, with hotel spas in Georgetown and calm corners such as Dumbarton Oaks, the Arboretum and the Tidal Basin early in the day. In Detroit, rest comes down to a hotel spa, a stroll on the RiverWalk or a quiet afternoon on Belle Isle.