Gatlinburg or Nashville?

Neither city is anywhere near a coast, so neither suits a beach vacation. Nashville has a small edge thanks to Percy Priest and Old Hickory lakes, where the water is warm through summer and a pontoon boat makes a relaxed afternoon.

In Gatlinburg, swimming means the national park's cold mountain rivers, tubing on the Little River near Townsend, or the drive to Douglas Lake. It is bracing and fun, but the currents need care, and the cabin hot tub ends up doing most of the work.

Nashville is far more rewarding at the table. It has a dish of its own in hot chicken, a living meat-and-three tradition, and chef-driven restaurants in East Nashville, Germantown and the Gulch, with Kurdish, Mexican and Vietnamese cooking along Nolensville Pike for variety.

Gatlinburg feeds a resort crowd: pancake houses, barbecue and family diners along the Parkway, with fudge and moonshine as the local treats. Good Appalachian trout or country ham does turn up, but only now and then, and keen eaters often drive out to Knoxville for a better meal.

Nashville offers proper sightseeing. The Country Music Hall of Fame, the National Museum of African American Music and the Ryman fill a day, and the Parthenon replica, the Frist in its Art Deco post office and the Hermitage plantation reach beyond music.

Gatlinburg's town centre is a strip of attractions rather than heritage. Its culture lies in the working studios of the Great Smoky Arts and Crafts Community and in the mountain families' cabins, mills and churches out at Cades Cove and Roaring Fork, which take a drive to reach.

Few places differ more after dark. Nashville's Lower Broadway runs as one long party of multi-storey honky-tonks into the small hours, and East Nashville's dive bars and cocktail lounges offer something calmer, though the night centres on bands rather than DJs.

In Gatlinburg the evening means a stroll along the lit Parkway, a moonshine tasting and perhaps a brewery terrace, and the strip is quiet by late night. Most visitors finish the day in a hot tub above the trees.

Gatlinburg is the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains, and nothing near Nashville compares. Within minutes of town you are in old hardwood forest, with walks to Grotto Falls, the climb up Alum Cave, the road over Newfound Gap and wildlife from bears to the elk of the eastern valleys. The only real drawback is weekend traffic at the busiest trailheads.

Nashville's outdoors is gentler and smaller in scale: deer and owls at Radnor Lake, forest walks in the Warner Parks, an easy paddle on the Harpeth and cycling along the Natchez Trace Parkway. It is welcome green space for a city, not a reason to go.

The two have about as much within reach, but the trips differ in kind. From Gatlinburg the best ones cross the mountains: Asheville and the Biltmore Estate, Cherokee's museum and Oconaluftee village, and the heritage railway at Bryson City.

Nashville's day trips run to small towns, history and whiskey: Franklin's Main Street and Civil War battlefields, the village of Leiper's Fork, and the distilleries around Lynchburg, with Chattanooga as a longer day out.

Gatlinburg is built for children, and it shows. The Parkway's aquarium, mazes, go-karts and gondola parks, Dollywood a short drive away, and easy waterfall walks and junior ranger badges in the park fill a week without effort. The parents' main frustrations are queues and slow traffic.

Nashville takes more planning. The zoo at Grassmere, the Adventure Science Center and the Lane Motor Museum are good, but they are spread out, and the loud adult crowds on Lower Broadway are something to steer around.

Both have a small, walkable centre and need a car for almost everything beyond it. Gatlinburg's trolley loops through town and on to Pigeon Forge, but cabins up winding hillside roads and the park's trailheads mean driving, often in slow traffic.

Nashville's downtown links Broadway, the Ryman and the Gulch on foot, but the Opry, Belle Meade and neighbourhoods like 12 South are each a ride-hail or drive apart, with buses as the only public transport.

Nashville has the more distinctive range: boots and rhinestone shirts on Broadway, guitar shops, Hatch Show Print's letterpress posters, and independent boutiques and record shops in 12 South and East Nashville.

Gatlinburg is mostly souvenirs, candy kitchens and T-shirts, but its best buys are better than the Parkway suggests: quilts, pottery, baskets and brooms sold by the people who made them in the Arts and Crafts Community, with outlet malls nearby in Pigeon Forge.

Gatlinburg is easier on the budget. Shared cabins and older motels are good value, especially midweek and in winter, and the national park costs little to enjoy, though the paid attractions and Dollywood add up quickly for a family.

Nashville is priced like a large American city, with expensive downtown hotels at weekends and ride-hailing costs on top. Its saving grace is that the honky-tonk music on Broadway is free from late morning on.

Nashville is one of the great music cities, and Gatlinburg cannot compete with it. The Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman's famous acoustics, songwriter nights in small rooms and Americana in East Nashville make up the core, and the symphony at the Schermerhorn and opera and ballet at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center cover the classical side.

Gatlinburg's live entertainment means bluegrass pickers in tasting rooms and on the street, plus the dinner shows and country revues of nearby Pigeon Forge. It is cheerful and family-friendly, but there is no serious stage.

Neither has a spa culture, but Gatlinburg is the more restful stay. A hillside cabin with a hot tub, a rocking chair and mist on the ridges gives real quiet, as long as you sleep above the Parkway rather than beside it.

Nashville is built around late nights and noise. Unwinding there means a hotel spa or a base in leafy Belmont or Hillsboro, well away from Broadway.