Kansas City or Santa Fe?

Neither city is anywhere near a coast, so swimming is a summer side activity in both. Kansas City offers sandy lake beaches in county parks around the metro area. Santa Fe's equivalent means driving an hour to Abiquiu Lake or floating a stretch of the Rio Grande, which feels more like a day out in the desert than an afternoon at the beach.

Both cities are worth eating in, each for one distinctive regional cooking. In Kansas City it is hickory-smoked barbecue and burnt ends, and arguing over which smokehouse is best is half the fun. The River Market's Vietnamese and Ethiopian counters, the Mexican Westside and the local breweries add a wider everyday range.

Santa Fe answers with New Mexican chile cooking, blue corn and posole, plus a fine-dining tier that Kansas City cannot match. Beyond its own cuisine, though, it offers less variety. Pick Kansas City for smoke and beer, and Santa Fe for the red-or-green question and the occasional splurge dinner.

Santa Fe gives more for a sightseeing trip because the town itself is the attraction. The adobe streets around the Plaza go back to Spanish colonial times, and the Palace of the Governors, the Loretto Chapel, Museum Hill, the O'Keeffe Museum and Canyon Road's galleries all lie close together.

Kansas City has some heavyweight single institutions: the Nelson-Atkins with its Chinese art, the National WWI Museum and the Negro Leagues and jazz museums at 18th and Vine. Between them, though, there are few historic streets, and you drive from one sight to the next.

Kansas City is the place for a proper night out. It has the sports bars of the Power and Light District, the student crowd in Westport and calmer cocktail and craft-beer bars in the Crossroads, though you need a ride between them.

Santa Fe winds down after dinner. A sunset margarita on a rooftop facing the Jemez Mountains is the highlight, and anyone wanting more drives to Albuquerque.

This is where the two cities are furthest apart. Santa Fe sits at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and you can climb from piñon foothills to aspen forest, then go on into the Pecos Wilderness. It also has badlands, mesas, the elk meadows of Valles Caldera and the red cliffs around Abiquiu, all within a short drive.

Kansas City offers gentle prairie, the huge Swope Park, Loose Park's roses and creekside paved trails. These are fine for a walk or a bike ride, but real hiking country such as the Ozarks is hours away.

Santa Fe could fill a week of outings. You can drive the High Road through Chimayo and Truchas to Taos Pueblo, climb into the cliff dwellings at Bandelier, learn the atomic history of Los Alamos, or follow the Turquoise Trail through Madrid and Cerrillos.

Kansas City's outings are pleasant half days: Truman's Independence, the university town of Lawrence, antebellum Weston and the Pony Express story in St Joseph. Both cities need a car for almost all of these.

Kansas City makes the practical side of travelling with children easy. Roads are wide, parking is simple and restaurants take families in their stride. On summer days children can splash in the boulevard fountains, and a ball game at Kauffman Stadium makes a relaxed family evening. The drawback is distance: the big attractions sit in different corners of the metro area, so expect a fair amount of time in the car between them.

Santa Fe has fewer places built for children, but a few of them stand out. The folk art collection's toys and miniatures hold young eyes surprisingly well, and in winter the small ski area, less than an hour from the Plaza, gives lessons to beginners. The town is safe and calm, but most outings still mean a drive, and its pace suits children with patience for museums and trails more than those who want rides and play areas.

Santa Fe is easier on foot. The Plaza, the cathedral, Canyon Road and the Railyard lie within about twenty minutes' walk of each other, though uphill stretches feel steep at this altitude. In Kansas City, only the streetcar along Main Street makes a day without a car possible. In both cities the outlying sights, from Museum Hill and the trailheads to the zoo and Worlds of Fun, really need a hire car.

Santa Fe is the place to shop for things you cannot find elsewhere. You can buy silver and turquoise directly from Native American artists under the Palace of the Governors portal, browse dense gallery streets and, in summer, visit the Indian, Spanish and Folk Art markets, which draw serious collectors.

Kansas City's shopping centres on the Spanish-style Country Club Plaza with its chain and upmarket stores, plus vintage and record shops in the Crossroads and Westport. Barbecue sauce is the usual souvenir.

Kansas City is the gentler of the two on the wallet. Its downtown hotels are moderately priced, a barbecue lunch is filling and the Nelson-Atkins is free to enter. Ticketed family attractions and car hire still add up.

Santa Fe charges resort prices around the Plaza, especially in the summer market and opera season, and its restaurants are priced for wealthy visitors. Staying out on Cerrillos Road and spending your days on free hikes and gallery browsing keeps costs down.

Kansas City gives the steadier programme through the year. Jazz in the Count Basie and Charlie Parker tradition plays most nights around 18th and Vine, and the Kauffman Center houses a symphony, opera and ballet.

Santa Fe's high point is more spectacular but seasonal. The opera performs in an open-sided theatre at sunset, and summer adds chamber music and flamenco. In winter the calendar shrinks to shows at the Lensic and choirs in the old churches.

Santa Fe is made for slowing down. It has onsen-style soaking tubs among the pines on the ski road, the historic mineral pools at Ojo Caliente and a long list of spas and yoga studios.

Kansas City offers hotel spas and the old mineral resort of Excelsior Springs, forty minutes north. A quiet morning there is more likely to mean the Loose Park rose garden or the Nelson-Atkins sculpture lawn.