Kansas City or Louisville?

Neither city is a place for a beach vacation, because both lie deep inland. They differ only in summer swimming. Kansas City has sandy lake beaches in county parks on the edge of the metro area, which work for an afternoon. In Louisville the Ohio is a working river with strong currents, so lake swimming means driving out to the Kentucky reservoirs.

Each city's food centres on one obsession. In Kansas City it is smoke: hickory-smoked meat, a thick, sweet molasses sauce and burnt ends, served everywhere from old counters near the stockyards and 18th and Vine to petrol-station joints. There are also steakhouses from the cattle-town days. The Vietnamese, Ethiopian and Middle Eastern counters at the River Market and the Mexican cooking of the Westside add a little range.

In Louisville the obsession is in the glass. Whiskey Row and the downtown distillery tasting rooms put bourbon at the centre of an evening, and the plates are particular to Kentucky: the hot brown, burgoo, Benedictine and Derby pie. Go to Kansas City to eat and Louisville to drink, although in both cities the choice narrows quickly once you step outside the speciality.

Kansas City has the deeper list of museums. The Nelson-Atkins, with its Chinese collection and Oldenburg shuttlecocks, is a more substantial art museum than Louisville's Speed. The National WWI Museum and the Negro Leagues and jazz museums at 18th and Vine are visits you will not find anywhere else.

Louisville's sights are built around its famous names: Churchill Downs and the Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center, and the Slugger museum among the cast-iron fronts of Whiskey Row. It is better for walking among old buildings, though. Old Louisville's Victorian mansions make a finer stroll than anything in Kansas City, where the grand architecture is mostly limited to Union Station and the Plaza.

A night out is much the same in both: bars rather than clubs, spread across districts you need a ride between. Kansas City's nightlife is split between the sports bars of Power and Light, scruffy Westport and the calmer craft-beer bars of the Crossroads and River Market, and the city goes quiet early on weeknights.

In Louisville, the dive bars and patios of Bardstown Road and the bourbon and cocktail bars of NuLu and Butchertown are the main draws. Some bars have late licences that let a night run on, and Derby week in spring brings the whole city out.

Louisville has more to offer outdoors, largely thanks to Olmsted. Cherokee and Iroquois parks have wooded hills and city views, the Big Four Bridge walkway takes you out over the Ohio, and across the river you can walk on the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio. Jefferson Memorial Forest and Bernheim Forest have proper woodland hiking, and Mammoth Cave is close enough for a day out.

Kansas City has the sheer size of Swope Park, the rose garden in Loose Park and paved trails along the creeks. But the prairie around it is gentle, and the serious hiking country of the Ozarks is hours away.

This is Louisville's biggest advantage. Bourbon country begins about 45 minutes away at Bardstown, and the roads on to Frankfort, Lawrenceburg and Loretto lead to distilleries you can tour. Lexington's thoroughbred farms and Keeneland, Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace give you several more days out.

Kansas City's outings are pleasant half days rather than reasons to stay longer: Truman sites in Independence, the university town of Lawrence, the antebellum houses of Weston and the Pony Express museum in St Joseph. In both cities you need a car.

Kansas City has a slightly fuller programme for children. It has Worlds of Fun with its water park and a large zoo, and Science City in Union Station sits close to the aquarium and Legoland Discovery Centre at Crown Center, so they make an easy day together.

Louisville covers similar ground on a smaller scale, with a well-regarded zoo, Kentucky Kingdom and the Science Center. It also has something Kansas City lacks: tram tours and ziplines underground in the Mega Cavern. In both cities the attractions are spread out, so expect a lot of time in the car.

Both are car cities with easy roads and plenty of parking, so most visitors drive. The difference is Kansas City's streetcar along Main Street. It links the River Market, downtown, Union Station and Crown Center, so a car-free day or two is possible if you stay on the line.

Louisville has no rail transit at all. Downtown, the waterfront and NuLu are walkable, but getting to Churchill Downs, the Highlands or the big parks means driving or ride-hailing.

Kansas City has more shopping, mainly because of the Country Club Plaza, a 1920s Spanish-style district of courtyards and tiled towers with chain and upmarket stores. The Crossroads adds galleries and vintage, and Westport and 39th Street add record and thrift shops.

Louisville's shopping is smaller and local: boutiques in NuLu, and vintage, records and antiques on Bardstown Road. Its souvenir is the more distinctive one, though: bottles from distillery shops that are hard to find elsewhere, along with Derby hats.

Neither is a budget destination. Both cost about what an ordinary American city costs, with sales tax and a tip on every bill and a hire car for most visitors. Kansas City's streetcar can spare you some of that driving, and the Nelson-Atkins charges nothing for general entry.

In Louisville, hotels are good value for most of the year, and the parks, riverfront and Old Louisville cost nothing to enjoy. Derby week in spring is the exception: rates rise several times over, so travellers on a budget should plan around it.

Kansas City has the better evenings out, because jazz grew up here. The hard-swinging style of Count Basie and Charlie Parker still plays most nights in small clubs around 18th and Vine and Midtown, often with late jam sessions. The Kauffman Center is home to the symphony, opera and ballet.

Louisville also has a full set of companies at the Kentucky Center, and Actors Theatre is known for staging new American plays. Its local sound is bluegrass and Americana in the bars on Bardstown Road. It is a dependable programme, but rarely one you would plan a night around.

Neither city has a spa culture of its own. Both offer hotel and day spas and an unhurried pace, and each has an old mineral-water resort within a drive: Excelsior Springs about forty minutes from Kansas City, and the grander French Lick and West Baden Springs about an hour and a half from Louisville in southern Indiana. To relax in town, Kansas City has Loose Park's roses and the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park, while Louisville offers a porch in the Highlands or a drive through horse country.