Houston or Nashville?

Houston comes out ahead, because it can at least reach the sea. Galveston, about an hour's drive south-east, offers a real day on the sand, along the seawall or out on the long, quieter West End, and the warm, shallow Gulf is easy for children to splash in, even if the water is murky brown-green rather than clear.

Nashville's nearest water is fresh. The reservoirs on the city's edge give you a lake swim or an afternoon out on a boat, which is a pleasant way to cool off between sights but nothing like a seaside day. If sand and salt water matter to you, Houston is the one to pick, though nobody should choose either city for its beaches.

Houston is the more rewarding place to eat, because its range is wider. Tex-Mex, brisket, Viet-Cajun crawfish boils and Gulf oysters cover the local side. Along Bellaire Boulevard's Asiatown, and in Nigerian, Pakistani and Salvadoran neighbourhoods in the south-west, you can eat your way round the world, provided you have a car.

Nashville's cooking is narrower and more Southern: hot chicken, meat-and-three cafeterias, biscuits and Tennessee whiskey. East Nashville, Germantown and Nolensville Pike add good modern and immigrant cooking, but downtown is mostly bar food.

Houston has the stronger museums. The Museum of Fine Arts, the Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel make it a real art city, and Space Center Houston adds mission control and a Saturn V rocket.

Nashville's sights are mostly about one subject, music, told well at the Country Music Hall of Fame, the National Museum of African American Music and the Ryman. The Parthenon replica, the Frist and the plantation houses at the Hermitage and Belle Meade add depth. Neither city has many old streets to wander.

Nashville is the better night out, and it is all in one place. Lower Broadway's honky-tonks have a band on every floor and run as one long party at weekends, with hen and stag groups everywhere. East Nashville's dive bars offer a quieter alternative.

Houston's nights are pleasant but scattered. You might have drinks at a Montrose gay bar, a lounge on Washington Avenue or a patio at an icehouse, usually with a ride in between. It is good for a relaxed evening, but nobody goes to Houston for its nightlife.

Nashville's surroundings are greener and easier to enjoy. Wooded hills, Radnor Lake's quiet trails, the Warner Parks, canoeing on the Harpeth River and the Natchez Trace Parkway are all close, and autumn colour is a real draw.

Houston's land is flat prairie and bayou. Buffalo Bayou and Memorial Park are good for running and paddling, and Brazos Bend has alligators. Its one standout is the spring bird migration along the coast near Galveston, which draws birders.

Nashville has more within easy reach. Franklin, half an hour south, combines a preserved Main Street with Civil War battlefields. Leiper's Fork, the Stones River battlefield and the whiskey distilleries around Lynchburg are close behind.

From Houston, the obvious day out is Galveston: the iron-fronted Strand, Victorian houses and the Bishop's Palace, with the Kemah boardwalk on the way. The San Jacinto battlefield and the wildflower farm country around Brenham and Round Top round out the list. Austin and San Antonio are too far for a day trip and need an overnight stay.

Houston gives children more to do. Space Center Houston is the big draw, and Hermann Park holds the zoo, a miniature train, the Children's Museum and the natural science museum's dinosaur hall. Galveston's glass-pyramid aquarium and waterparks add more.

Nashville has a good zoo at Grassmere, the Adventure Science Center and the Parthenon, but its most famous street is loud and adult. Both cities involve a lot of driving between sights, and Houston's summer heat is the harsher of the two for outdoor days.

Both are car cities, but Nashville is easier for a visitor. Its downtown core is small and walkable, with Broadway, the Ryman, the Gulch and the pedestrian bridge to the east bank all close together. You only need a ride for the Opry or the outer neighbourhoods.

Houston spreads across a huge area of freeways. The METRORail line from downtown through Midtown and the Museum District to the medical centre is the useful one for visitors, but most restaurants and sights are many kilometres apart. Heat and missing pavements make walking any distance unpleasant.

Houston is the bigger shopping city. Uptown has one of the largest malls in the country, with the major luxury houses and an ice rink, and River Oaks has high-end boutiques on open-air streets. The Heights and Rice Village cover vintage and independent shops.

Nashville's shopping is narrower but more distinctive: boot shops on Broadway, an outstanding choice of guitars and Hatch Show Print's letterpress posters. Its luxury shops are out in suburban malls.

Houston is the cheaper of the two. Hotels are plentiful, several major museums are free, and taquerias, barbecue and Asiatown noodle shops cost little. Car hire and parking are the costs to plan for.

Nashville's downtown hotels are expensive, especially at weekends when groups fill the city. The saving grace is that the Broadway honky-tonks charge no cover. Staying midweek or outside downtown, and eating at hot chicken counters, helps a great deal.

For live music, Nashville wins easily. The Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman's famous acoustics, songwriter nights where the writers play their own hits, and bluegrass and Americana rooms fill every night, and the Schermerhorn adds a fine symphony hall.

Houston's strength lies elsewhere: a compact Theater District with the Houston Grand Opera, the Houston Ballet and the long-running Alley Theatre, plus free summer shows at the Miller Outdoor Theatre. Its music scene of zydeco, blues and local hip-hop is smaller and more spread out.

Neither city is a place to unwind, and both offer little more than hotel and day spas. What differs is where you find calm. In Houston, it is an hour in the Rothko Chapel or on the Menil's lawns, with a few Korean-style bathhouses out in the suburbs. In Nashville, it means staying in leafy Belmont or Hillsboro, well away from the noise of Broadway.