Kansas City or Wisconsin Dells?

Neither city is a beach destination, but the Dells does have real lake swimming in summer. Devil's Lake has sandy beaches under its bluffs, the water warms to about 24°C, and the waterparks make swimming the centre of most visits. In Kansas City you swim at a county-park lake beach or a hotel pool, which is fine for an afternoon with children and not much more.

Kansas City is a food destination in one specific sense: barbecue. Burnt ends, hickory smoke and sweet molasses sauce are worth planning meals around, whether at old counters near the stockyards and 18th and Vine or in smarter dining rooms. The Vietnamese and Ethiopian counters in the River Market add some range.

The Dells mostly feeds families between rides, with pizza, buffets and steakhouses. Its pleasures are Wisconsin ones: a Friday fish fry, a brandy old fashioned at a supper club and a bag of squeaky cheese curds. Serious food lovers save themselves for Madison.

The gap here is wide. Kansas City has a major encyclopaedic art museum in the Nelson-Atkins, the country's main museum of the First World War, and the Negro Leagues and jazz museums at 18th and Vine. Union Station and the Spanish-style Country Club Plaza add some fine architecture.

The Dells has the H.H. Bennett Studio, which tells how photographs of the river gorges first drew tourists to the town, and a few exhibits on the Ho-Chunk Nation. The wax museums and upside-down houses on Broadway amuse children but are not heritage.

Kansas City gives you a real choice of evening: sports screens in the Power and Light District, student bars in Westport and quieter cocktail and craft beer bars in the Crossroads. It is not a club city, but it easily beats the Dells. There, once the waterparks close, a night out means a tavern, a brewery taproom or a supper-club bar, and the only late option is the casino near Baraboo.

The Dells exists because of its landscape. The Wisconsin River's sandstone canyons are best seen from a kayak or a boat. Devil's Lake adds quartzite bluffs, boulder trails, rock climbing and superb autumn colour, and in winter there is cross-country skiing.

Kansas City's outdoors is gentler and more urban: Swope Park, the rose garden in Loose Park, creekside trails and boating on the reservoirs. For anything wilder you need the Ozarks, several hours away.

From the Dells, Madison makes a proper day out, with its domed Capitol on an isthmus between two lakes. Taliesin and House on the Rock at Spring Green, and Circus World in Baraboo, are all within about an hour.

Kansas City's outings are shorter and quieter: Truman's home in Independence, the main street in Lawrence, antebellum Weston and the Pony Express museum in St Joseph. You need a car from either base.

Kansas City is a good family city, with more for children who like to learn as well as play. Science City inside Union Station is hands-on, and Crown Center nearby has an aquarium, a Legoland Discovery Centre and a free creative play space. A ball game at Kauffman Stadium makes a relaxed evening, though the zoo and Worlds of Fun lie far apart, so expect long stretches in the car.\n\nFor a vacation built entirely around children, the Dells is still the stronger choice.

America's largest outdoor waterpark and the lake beaches belong to summer, but the indoor waterpark resorts stay warm through the Wisconsin winter, so a cold-weather trip is possible on a smaller scale. When the slides wear thin, Devil's Lake and the river trails make a change. Teenagers may run out of things to do sooner than younger children, and summer weekends are loud and crowded.

You will drive in both places, but Kansas City offers an alternative. Its streetcar along Main Street links the River Market, downtown, Union Station and Crown Center, so a day or two without a car is realistic if you stay near the line.

The Dells has no useful public transport, and the highway strips are unpleasant to walk along. Only a few blocks of Broadway work on foot. The nearest airport with regular flights is in Madison, about an hour away.

Kansas City has the more interesting shopping. The Country Club Plaza has tiled courtyards and upmarket stores, and the Crossroads and Westport add vintage, design and record shops. The Dells has fudge, cheese and T-shirt shops on Broadway and a large outlet centre for a wet afternoon, but no independent boutiques at all.

The overall cost comes out much the same, typical of mid-priced America, but the money goes in different places. In Kansas City, hotels are reasonable and the Nelson-Atkins is free, while car hire, ball games and museum tickets add up. In the Dells the season decides: older motels and the free state parks keep costs moderate, but summer weekends at the big waterpark resorts get expensive quickly.

The stage is one of Kansas City's strongest draws. The hard-swinging jazz of Count Basie and Charlie Parker grew up here and still plays in small clubs with late jam sessions. The Kauffman Center is home to the symphony, the opera and the ballet.

The Dells has magic shows, dinner shows and touring tribute acts at a theatre in Lake Delton, but no resident theatre or orchestra. People who want more drive to Spring Green for its summer outdoor classical theatre, or to Madison for concerts.

Neither is a spa destination, but the Dells offers more real rest. It has full-service resort spas, an adults-only retreat in the woods where parents can escape for a day or two, and empty lakes and pine woods early in the morning or out of season. Kansas City has hotel and day spas, the old mineral-water resort of Excelsior Springs about forty minutes north, and slow mornings in the Loose Park rose garden or the Nelson-Atkins sculpture park.