Houston or Miami?

Houston has no beach of its own. Galveston, an hour south-east, has a seawall and long sands at the West End, but the Gulf there is brown-green and cloudy. It is fine for a family day out, not for a beach vacation.

Miami is the opposite case. Miami Beach is one continuous strip of pale sand from South Beach up to Surfside, Key Biscayne adds calmer shallows, and the Atlantic is warm and gentle enough to swim in any month. Sargassum and summer storms are the only real drawbacks.

Both cities eat well and both lean on Latin America, but Houston has the wider range. Tex-Mex and barbecue are local traditions there. The Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean kitchens along Bellaire Boulevard and the Nigerian and Pakistani places of the south-west let you eat your way across the map, as long as you have a car.

Miami has a tighter Caribbean focus: Cuban ventanitas on Calle Ocho, Haitian griot in Little Haiti, Peruvian ceviche and stone crab in winter. Seafood runs through both cities, with Gulf oysters and redfish in one and grouper and conch fritters in the other, though in Miami the tourist strips of South Beach are best avoided.

There is little to choose between them in depth, but a lot in kind. Houston's culture is mostly indoors: the Museum of Fine Arts and its neighbours in the Museum District, the Menil's quiet galleries in Montrose, the Rothko Chapel and mission control at Space Center Houston.

Miami's culture is something you walk through: the pastel Art Deco blocks of Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue, Vizcaya on the bay and the murals of Wynwood. Its museums are good rather than great. Neither city has much old historic fabric.

Miami is the stronger night out by a wide margin. The clubs of South Beach and downtown run big-room DJ nights until dawn. Around them, Wynwood's warehouse bars, the Brickell rooftops and salsa nights on Calle Ocho give real variety.

Houston's evenings are more easy-going. There are gay bars and neighbourhood drinking in Montrose, lounges for younger drinkers on Washington Avenue and open-sided icehouse patios on warm nights. Bars close at 2am and you usually need a ride between districts. It is pleasant, but rarely a reason to visit.

Miami has the Everglades on its western edge, with airboat rides, alligators and wading birds along the Anhinga Trail and the cycling loop at Shark Valley. Add mangrove kayaking and reef snorkelling in Biscayne National Park and off Key Largo, and Miami has a wildlife-and-water side that Houston cannot match.

Houston's outdoors are gentler: bayou trails and Memorial Park's woods in town, alligators at Brazos Bend and pine forest further out. Its standout is the spring bird migration along the coast near Galveston. In both cities summer heat confines outdoor plans to early mornings.

Neither city is a great base for day trips, but the outings differ in character. From Houston the best days are about history: Galveston's iron-fronted Strand and Victorian East End, the San Jacinto battlefield, and the farm towns around Brenham, with wildflowers along the roads in spring.

From Miami the draws are water and old money: the seafood shacks of Islamorada in the Upper Keys, the Gilded Age mansions of Palm Beach and the canals of Fort Lauderdale. Each city's biggest names, Austin and San Antonio or Key West, are better kept for an overnight stay.

Families do equally well in either, for different reasons. Houston's draws are the real spacecraft at Space Center Houston and the cluster around Hermann Park, with the zoo, the Children's Museum and the dinosaur hall. That is enough for several days, much of it indoors and out of the heat.

A Miami family trip centres on the sand and gentle water at Key Biscayne and North Beach, with Zoo Miami, the Frost Science aquarium and Everglades airboats in between. Both cities need a car and early starts in summer, and in Miami it pays to stay well away from the party end of South Beach.

Neither is easy without a car, but Miami is the less awkward of the two. Staying in South Beach, you can walk or cycle locally. The free Metromover links downtown and Brickell, and ride-hailing covers Wynwood and Little Havana.

Houston spreads much further, and its sights sit kilometres apart along the freeways. The one useful METRORail line runs only from downtown through the Museum District to the medical centre. Plan on hiring a car there and allow for rush-hour traffic.

Both cities sell luxury to visitors from Latin America, but Miami does it with more polish. It has the flagship stores of the Design District, the exclusive open-air mall at Bal Harbour and the enormous Aventura Mall, plus Lincoln Road for an easy walk past mainstream brands.

Houston's luxury is concentrated in the giant Uptown mall and the River Oaks boutiques. Its smaller pleasures are the vintage shops on 19th Street in the Heights and the walkable grid of Rice Village. Its Western boots and hats are a speciality Miami cannot offer.

Houston costs noticeably less. Hotel rooms are plentiful outside convention weeks, several major museums are free, and some of its best food, tacos, barbecue and Asiatown noodles, is also its cheapest. The main costs are car hire and sit-down restaurant bills with tipping.

Miami is an expensive trip. Winter beachfront rates, resort fees, parking and South Beach drinks all add up. Cuban lunch counters, the free beaches and staying on the mainland help, and summer rooms are cheaper if you can put up with the heat and storms.

Houston's Theater District is the stronger draw. Within a few blocks of downtown it has resident opera and ballet at the Wortham Center, the Houston Symphony at Jones Hall and the long-established Alley Theatre. In summer there are also free shows at the Miller Outdoor Theatre in Hermann Park.

Miami has some fine pieces: the Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami City Ballet and the New World Symphony in its Gehry building. Its most distinctive sound is Latin, with salsa, son and timba in Little Havana. Its season is concentrated in winter, while Houston's runs from autumn to late spring.

Miami makes the more restful trip, despite the noise of South Beach. The big hotels on Miami Beach and Key Biscayne have spa floors with ocean views, and sunrise yoga on the sand is easy to find. A long-established Russian and Turkish bath house offers banya, steam rooms and cold plunges, and Surfside and Key Biscayne slow right down.

Houston has hotel spas, day spas and a few Korean bathhouses in the suburbs, but no tradition of rest. Its calmest hours are spent in the Rothko Chapel or on the Menil's lawns.