Louisville or Milwaukee?

Milwaukee wins here, though only modestly. Bradford Beach, below the East Side bluffs, is a real stretch of sand with volleyball courts and a summer crowd, but Lake Michigan stays cool and many visitors only paddle.

Louisville has nothing like it. The Ohio's barges and currents rule out swimming, so a dip means a hotel pool or a drive out to a reservoir lake in the countryside.

The two are level at the table, and each is organised around its drink. Louisville pours Kentucky bourbon and eats rich Southern food: the hot brown, burgoo, Derby pie, barbecue and fried chicken. Milwaukee is a beer town that makes its old fashioned with brandy instead, and it eats like the German and Polish Midwest, with the Friday fish fry, bratwurst, cheese curds and frozen custard.

Neither has the range of a big city, and fine dining is a thin layer in both. The difference is in what sits beyond the signature dishes. Louisville's best tables put Kentucky farm produce on Southern menus but rarely stray from that tradition. Milwaukee has two things Louisville lacks, the old-fashioned supper club and a covered market for grazing, and its Mexican South Side widens the choice a little more.

Each city fills two or three good days, and the sights in both follow the industry that made it. Louisville's are about horses and sport: Churchill Downs and the Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center and the Slugger museum. The Victorian mansions of Old Louisville are among the largest districts of their kind in the country.

Milwaukee has the more striking single building, Calatrava's winged art museum on the lake. It adds the Harley-Davidson Museum and the brewing-era wealth on show in the Pabst Mansion, St Josaphat's dome and the Third Ward warehouses.

Milwaukee has the deeper bar culture. A corner tavern on nearly every block gives it a night out of its own, and the range runs from Water Street's sports crowd to the taprooms and LGBTQ bars of Walker's Point. On summer nights the patios and beer gardens fill.

Louisville centres on Bardstown Road's dives and patios and on bourbon bars in NuLu, and a few late licences can stretch a night. Outside Derby season it is the quieter of the two. Neither city has much of a club scene.

Frederick Law Olmsted shaped the parks of both cities, so city green space is good in each. The difference is water. Louisville looks onto the Ohio, with the Big Four Bridge walkway and fossil beds you can walk at the Falls, and it has wooded hills in Cherokee and Iroquois parks. Mammoth Cave is within a day's reach.

Milwaukee faces an open, sea-like lake, with flat lakefront cycling trails, kayaking through the centre and the glacial hills of Kettle Moraine. Its outdoor season is shorter, though.

Both have plenty of good outings, but they differ in kind. From Louisville, the trips are rural and need a car: distilleries around Bardstown and Frankfort, the white-fenced horse farms near Lexington, Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace.

From Milwaukee, the best trip is a different city altogether, with Chicago reachable by train and no car needed. Wright's buildings in Racine, Cedarburg's mills and the gardens at Kohler round out the options closer to home.

Children are well looked after in both, and each has a well-regarded zoo. Louisville leans towards thrills, with Kentucky Kingdom's coasters and water park and the underground zipline at Mega Cavern. Milwaukee has gentler indoor options in Discovery World's aquariums and the glass Domes.

The seasons work against families in opposite ways. Louisville's summers are hot and sticky, while Milwaukee's winters keep children indoors from November to March.

Milwaukee is the easier city without a car. Its compact downtown and Third Ward are linked by the Riverwalk and The Hop streetcar, and buses reach the zoo and the East Side.

Louisville has no rail at all. Beyond Main Street and NuLu, places like Churchill Downs, the Highlands and the big parks all mean driving or ride-hailing. Traffic is light in both, so a hire car is no hardship.

Nobody comes to either city to shop, and in both the best souvenirs are local. Louisville's are bourbon bottles that are hard to find elsewhere, along with Derby hats. Milwaukee's are Wisconsin cheese, local beer and Harley-Davidson gear. For browsing, Milwaukee's Third Ward warehouses are the more pleasant afternoon, while Louisville's Bardstown Road is better for vintage and antiques.

Milwaukee is the easier city on a budget. Tavern beer is cheap, fish fries are fairly priced, and the lakefront and many festivals cost little or nothing. Its expensive moments are summer weekends with big festivals or games.

Louisville's hotel rooms are reasonable, but tax, tips and the near-constant need for a car add up over each day. Derby week multiplies room rates many times over, so budget travellers should avoid it entirely.

Both support a full set of orchestra, opera, ballet and theatre companies, and outside summer they are about even. Louisville's distinctive strengths are Actors Theatre, known for new American plays, and the bluegrass and Americana bands in its bars.

Milwaukee pulls ahead in summer. Summerfest fills the lakefront grounds with hundreds of acts over several weeks, and the 1895 Pabst Theater gives touring bands a beautiful room to play in.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and wellness in both comes down to hotel and day spas. Each has a proper retreat a drive away: Louisville has the grand old mineral-spring hotels of French Lick and West Baden Springs in Indiana, and Milwaukee has the resort village of Kohler an hour north. In town, the restful choice is a porch in the Highlands or a drive through horse country in Louisville, and a walk along the lakefront in Milwaukee.