Kansas City or San Antonio?

Neither city is anywhere near a beach, but San Antonio has the better swimming. The spring-fed Comal and San Marcos rivers, under an hour north, stay clear and cool all year, and floating them on an inner tube makes a proper summer afternoon, with limestone swimming holes in the Hill Country too.

Kansas City offers sandy lake beaches in county parks and public pools. That is enough to cool off with children, but nothing you would plan a day around.

Both are serious eating cities, but the specialities differ. In Kansas City the main thing is barbecue: hickory smoke, thick sweet sauce and burnt ends, eaten anywhere from stockyard-era counters to petrol stations, with old-fashioned steakhouses alongside. The River Market's Vietnamese, Ethiopian and Middle Eastern counters give it a little more range.

San Antonio is the home of Tex-Mex. Think breakfast tacos in handmade tortillas, puffy tacos and Sunday barbacoa, at their best in family places on the West and South Sides, with Central Texas brisket as a second strength. Outside those two specialities, both cities run thin.

These are two very different kinds of history. Kansas City's strength is its museums: the Nelson-Atkins with its Chinese art and Oldenburg shuttlecocks, the National WWI Museum under the Liberty Memorial, and the Negro Leagues and jazz museums at 18th and Vine. Between them, though, the city has few historic streets to wander.

San Antonio's history is the place itself. The Alamo and four riverside missions make up a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and San José's carved rose window and Espada's aqueduct are well worth the trip south. The King William mansions and the River Walk let you walk through that past, though its art museums are smaller than the Nelson-Atkins.

Neither city keeps late hours, and the difference lies in the setting. Kansas City spreads across separate districts: the sports-screen bars of Power and Light on game nights, student bars in Westport, and calmer craft beer in the Crossroads. You need a car or a ride to move between them.

San Antonio's evenings are more outdoors. There are margarita patios along the River Walk, and locals drink at open-sided icehouses on the St. Mary's Strip and in Southtown. The Tejano dance halls give it a kind of night out Kansas City does not have.

San Antonio has far more to offer outdoors. It sits on the edge of the Hill Country, with limestone hills, cypress-lined rivers, the trails of Government Canyon, Natural Bridge Caverns and spring bluebonnets along the back roads. Enchanted Rock makes a longer outing, and hiking is best from October to April.

Kansas City offers big city parks rather than landscape. Swope Park is huge, Loose Park has its rose garden, and paved creek trails and reservoirs ring the suburbs. The prairie around it is pleasant but flat, and the Ozarks are a long drive away.

Both cities need a car for day trips, but San Antonio's are better. Fredericksburg's German main street and wineries, the old dance hall at Gruene, cowboy Bandera and the LBJ Ranch make a full Hill Country loop, and Austin is about an hour and a half away.

From Kansas City the outings are half days with a historical theme. Truman's home and library in Independence, the college town of Lawrence, riverside Weston and St Joseph's Pony Express museum are all pleasant, but none would draw you on their own.

San Antonio gives children more to do. It has two big theme parks, SeaWorld and Six Flags Fiesta Texas, plus Morgan's Wonderland for families with disabled children, the DoSeum, and dinosaurs at the Witte. River cruises, tubing and the story of the Alamo all go down well with children. The summer heat needs planning around.

Kansas City is easy and relaxed with children. Worlds of Fun, the zoo, Science City at Union Station and the aquarium and play space at Crown Center fill a few days, and an evening at a ball game is cheerful. In both cities the attractions are spread out, so expect long stretches in the car.

Both are car cities, and each has one stretch where you can manage without. In Kansas City it is the streetcar along Main Street, linking the River Market, downtown, Union Station and Crown Center, so a hotel near the line covers a day or two on foot and by tram.

San Antonio has no rail at all, but its downtown is compact, and the shaded River Walk joins the Alamo, the cathedral and the Pearl away from traffic. You can cycle the river path south to the missions. Beyond those cores, both cities mean a hire car or ride-hailing.

Neither is a shopping destination, but the souvenirs are different. Kansas City's showpiece is the Country Club Plaza, a 1920s Spanish-style district of courtyards and tiled towers with mostly national stores. The Crossroads and 39th Street have galleries, vintage clothes and records.

San Antonio has more local character. El Mercado at Market Square sells pottery, papel picado, embroidered dresses and piñatas, and western boots and hats are a speciality. Elsewhere it is malls and outlets in both.

San Antonio is the cheaper of the two. Tacos and Tex-Mex plates are cheap, all five missions are free, and the convention trade keeps plenty of moderate hotel rooms available away from the river. You pay more mainly for a riverside view.

Kansas City also costs less than the coastal cities, and the free Nelson-Atkins helps. Overall, though, it costs about what an ordinary American city does. In both, a hire car, sales tax, tips and theme park tickets are where the money goes.

Kansas City has the stronger stage, and its jazz is the reason. Kansas City swing, the music of Count Basie and Charlie Parker, still plays most nights in small clubs, with late jam sessions. The Kauffman Center holds the symphony, the Lyric Opera and the ballet, and in summer Starlight stages musicals outdoors.

San Antonio has its own sound in conjunto and Tejano, accordion dance music heard in dance halls and at Fiesta, with mariachi around Market Square. The Tobin Center, the ornate Majestic and the riverside Arneson Theatre make a decent programme, but few people travel for it.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, but San Antonio is the easier place to rest. The golf and Hill Country resorts on its north side are built for slow days by the pool and spa, and the Japanese Tea Garden is a quiet hour in town, though summer heat cuts outdoor lounging short.

Kansas City offers hotel and day spas, plus a historic mineral-water spa hotel at Excelsior Springs, about forty minutes away. Its quieter moments come in Loose Park's rose garden or the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park.