Gatlinburg or Louisville?

Neither is a beach destination, since both are hundreds of kilometres from the sea. What differs is how you cool off. Gatlinburg has cold, clear mountain rivers for tubing and wading, especially near Townsend. Louisville's Ohio is a working river, so swimming there means a pool or a drive to a reservoir lake.

Gatlinburg feeds a resort crowd: pancake houses, barbecue and family restaurants along the Parkway, with fudge shops and moonshine tasting rooms for treats. Good Appalachian cooking such as trout and country ham does exist, but you have to seek it out, and keen eaters often drive to Knoxville.

Louisville is much the better place to eat and drink. Its food has a strong identity of its own, built on bourbon and on dishes such as the hot brown, burgoo and Derby pie. Its better restaurants in NuLu, the Highlands and Butchertown cook with Kentucky produce.

Gatlinburg's town centre is a strip of attractions with an observation tower as its landmark. Its real heritage lies elsewhere: the working studios on the Arts and Crafts Community loop and the old mountain cabins, mills and churches out at Cades Cove. These are rewarding, but there is little sightseeing in the usual sense.

Louisville has far more to see. Churchill Downs and the Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center, the Slugger and Frazier museums on Whiskey Row, the Speed Art Museum and the Victorian streets of Old Louisville fill two or three good days.

In Gatlinburg an evening means a stroll along the lit Parkway, a moonshine tasting and then back to the cabin hot tub. The strip is empty by late night.

Louisville is the only one of the two with a real night out. Bardstown Road has a long run of dive bars and patios, NuLu and Butchertown serve cocktails and bourbon, and some bars stay open very late, though there are few clubs.

Here Gatlinburg is in another league. It is the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, with deep forest a few minutes from town, waterfall walks, the climb to Mount LeConte, black bears and elk, and the road up to Clingmans Dome at about 2,025m. The price is weekend and October traffic on the park roads.

Louisville's outdoors are mostly city parks and gentle countryside: Olmsted's Cherokee and Iroquois parks, the Big Four Bridge walkway, the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio and woodland trails in Bernheim Forest. They are pleasant, but there are no mountains.

Gatlinburg's best day out is Asheville and the Biltmore Estate, about an hour and a half away. Cherokee lies across Newfound Gap, and Knoxville is closer still. Beyond these and neighbouring Pigeon Forge, the choice soon runs short.

Louisville has more to choose from. Bourbon country around Bardstown, Frankfort and Lawrenceburg means distillery tours, Lexington has the thoroughbred farms and Keeneland, and Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace add history to the list.

Gatlinburg is the stronger family choice, because the whole town is built around children. The Parkway has an aquarium, mirror mazes, alpine coasters and chairlift parks, Dollywood is a short drive away, and the national park has easy waterfall walks and junior ranger badges. The downside is long queues and crawling traffic in high season.

Louisville is relaxed with children, with a good zoo, the Kentucky Science Center, Kentucky Kingdom and underground tours at the Mega Cavern. These are spread across the city, though, and you need a car to get between them.

Neither works well without a car, but for different reasons. Gatlinburg's Parkway strip is compact and walkable, and a trolley runs out to Pigeon Forge. Most cabins, though, sit up steep, winding roads, the national park is only practical by car, and the park roads jam in leaf season.

Louisville has no rail transit and a thin bus network, so the Highlands, Churchill Downs and the big parks mean driving or ride-hailing. The upside is short distances and mild traffic.

Shopping is modest in both, and the real difference is what you take home. In Gatlinburg it is handmade quilts, pottery and brooms from the Arts and Crafts Community studios, with outlet malls a short drive away. In Louisville it is rare bourbon bottles, Derby hats, and vintage clothes and records from Bardstown Road.

Gatlinburg tends to be the cheaper stay. Older motels and big cabins shared by a group are good value, especially midweek and in winter, and the national park costs little to enjoy. Parkway attractions and Dollywood add up quickly for a family, though, and rates climb sharply in October and over Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Louisville's hotels are moderately priced outside racing season, but restaurant meals with tips on top and the daily cost of a car or ride-hailing push spending up. During Derby week, rooms cost several times their usual rate.

Gatlinburg's live entertainment is bluegrass in the moonshine tasting rooms, the dinner shows, country revues and magic acts in nearby Pigeon Forge, and mountain music at Dollywood. For an orchestra or serious theatre, you have to go to Knoxville.

Louisville has a full set of performing companies: orchestra, opera and ballet at the Kentucky Center, Actors Theatre with its long record of new American plays, and summer concerts at the Iroquois Amphitheater. Bars also have live bluegrass and Americana.

Gatlinburg is the more restful base. That comes less from its few spas than from the way people stay: a secluded hillside cabin with a hot tub on the deck and mist on the ridges. Stay above town, because the Parkway itself is noisy and crowded.

Louisville has hotel spas, slow porch afternoons in the Highlands and drives through horse country. For a proper spa break you drive about an hour and a half to the old mineral-spring resorts of French Lick and West Baden Springs.