Houston or St. Louis?

Houston at least has the sea within reach. Galveston Island is about an hour's drive away, with a seawall promenade and long, quiet West End sands. The Gulf is warm and shallow, but the water is usually cloudy and brown-green, so it works for a family day out rather than as the main reason to come.

St. Louis has nothing comparable. Its two great rivers are fast working waterways, not swimming spots, and the nearest real water for a swim is a reservoir lake deep in the Ozarks.

Houston is the stronger place to eat by some distance. Tex-Mex and Texas barbecue are its home cooking, Vietnamese-Cajun crawfish boils mark the spring, and Gulf oysters and redfish come in from the nearby coast. The real reward is out along Bellaire Boulevard and the south-west, where Vietnamese, Korean, Nigerian, Pakistani and Salvadoran neighbourhoods cook for their own communities.

St. Louis has a smaller, more homely table. It is known for toasted ravioli, Provel-topped cracker-crust pizza, gooey butter cake, frozen custard and red-sauce trattorias on the Hill, with Bosnian grills along South Grand. Beer is its deeper tradition, from the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Soulard to the taprooms around it.

The two are evenly matched, but they reward different kinds of sightseeing. Houston's culture is indoors and largely artistic. It has the Museum of Fine Arts, the Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel in leafy Montrose, plus Space Center Houston down at Clear Lake. Very little old townscape survives around them.

St. Louis offers more history you can walk through. The Gateway Arch and its museum of westward expansion, the Old Courthouse of the Dred Scott case, the Wainwright Building and the mosaics of the Cathedral Basilica sit among whole red-brick streets in Soulard and Lafayette Square.

Houston gives you more to do after dark. Montrose has long-standing gay bars and easy neighbourhood drinking, and Washington Avenue and Midtown pack in younger crowds. Open-sided icehouses make the most of the warm evenings for much of the year.

St. Louis's nights are smaller and more seasonal. Soulard's corner taverns and blues bars and the Grove's late strip are good fun, but many streets fall quiet early outside weekends and baseball season. In both cities a night out usually means a ride between districts.

St. Louis has the better country on its doorstep. The wooded Ozark foothills begin within an hour, with river bluffs, caves and trails at Castlewood and Meramec, and the boulders of Elephant Rocks and Johnson's Shut-Ins lie further south. The Katy Trail starts in St. Charles, and wintering bald eagles gather along the bluffs.

Houston's surroundings are flat prairie, bayou and marsh. The draws are alligators at Brazos Bend and spring migrant birds landing near Galveston. Its long, humid summers also cut outdoor time shorter than in St. Louis.

St. Louis has the richer choice of outings. Cahokia Mounds, the remains of a great pre-Columbian city, is only twenty minutes away. Within an hour or two you can reach Ste. Genevieve's French colonial houses, the German wine towns of Hermann and Augusta, Mark Twain's Hannibal and Lincoln's Springfield.

Houston mostly comes down to Galveston, whose Strand and Victorian East End make a good day alongside the beach. Beyond that there are the San Jacinto battlefield and the wildflower back roads around Brenham and Round Top, while Austin and San Antonio are too far for a day.

St. Louis has a slight edge. The City Museum's tunnels and rooftop slides are unlike anything in Houston, and the zoo and Science Center in Forest Park are free. The Magic House adds a hands-on museum, and the shorter drives make days with children less tiring.

Houston's big card is Space Center Houston, with real spacecraft and a Saturn V. It adds Hermann Park's zoo and miniature train, a children's museum and a natural science museum with a dinosaur hall, plus Galveston's aquarium and waterparks. Expect more time in the car and a longer stretch of summer heat.

Both cities expect you to drive, but St. Louis is far less work. MetroLink runs from the airport through Forest Park and the Central West End to downtown, parking is easy and the roads are rarely congested.

Houston spreads over a much larger area joined by multi-lane freeways. Its one useful rail line runs from downtown to the Museum District, and rush-hour traffic needs planning around. Ride-hailing bills mount quickly with the long distances.

Houston is a serious shopping destination. Uptown's vast mall gathers the luxury houses under one roof, River Oaks adds open-air boutiques, and the Heights and Rice Village cover vintage and independent shops. Boots and western hats are the local speciality to take home.

St. Louis offers a pleasant afternoon rather than a reason to come. Cherokee Street's antiques, records and Latin American shops are the best browsing, and the bigger fashion names sit out in suburban malls.

The overall cost of a stay is much the same, but the money goes in different places. Houston's cheapest pleasures are its taquerias, barbecue joints and Asiatown noodle shops. Its sprawl makes car hire, fuel, parking and ride-hailing a larger part of the bill.

St. Louis keeps hotels, even downtown, below big-city levels. Its zoo, art museum, history museum and science centre all sit free in one park, which keeps a family's sightseeing costs low.

Houston has the bigger stage. Its compact downtown Theater District holds a well-regarded opera and ballet, a symphony and the long-running Alley Theatre. The main season runs from autumn to spring, with free summer shows at Hermann Park's Miller Outdoor Theatre.

St. Louis is strongest in summer, when the Muny fills its huge outdoor theatre in Forest Park and the Opera Theatre runs its festival season. Its admired symphony plays in a former movie palace, and as the city of Chuck Berry and "St. Louis Blues" it keeps blues and jazz going in Soulard and downtown.

Neither city is a place for a restorative vacation. Houston at least has a few Korean-style bathhouses out in the suburbs, and the stillness of the Rothko Chapel is its most restful hour.

St. Louis makes up for it with an unhurried pace and few crowds. A slow morning in Forest Park or the Missouri Botanical Garden's Japanese garden is the closest it comes to a retreat.