Louisville or Ocean City, Maryland?

This is the starkest difference between the two. Ocean City is a beach town first and last, with about 16km of soft sand, public access from almost every street and warm, moderate surf in high summer, plus the undeveloped dunes of Assateague just to the south.

Louisville has nothing comparable. The Ohio is a working river with barges and strong currents, so summer swimming means a pool or a drive to the reservoir lakes in the countryside.

Louisville offers the more rewarding table. Whiskey Row and the distillery tasting rooms make bourbon a real focus, the hot brown, burgoo and Derby pie give the city dishes of its own, and NuLu, the Highlands and Butchertown have restaurants cooking Southern food with Kentucky produce.

Ocean City has one great ritual, the steamed blue crab feast with Old Bay and mallets, plus crab cakes and boardwalk fries, taffy and custard. Beyond seafood and snacks the choice is shallow, and many kitchens close outside summer.

Louisville has far more to see. Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center, the Slugger and Frazier museums on Whiskey Row and the mansions of Old Louisville make for two or three full days of sightseeing.

In Ocean City the boardwalk itself is the main piece of heritage, alongside the Life-Saving Station Museum and an old hand-carved carousel. Anyone after architecture or serious museums will be leaving town for them.

Both are bar towns rather than club towns, but the mood is very different. Louisville spreads its evenings between the dive bars and patios of Bardstown Road and the bourbon and cocktail bars of NuLu, open all year and at their wildest around the Derby.

Ocean City is a summer party strip: open-air bayside bars with sand floors, sunset crowds and rum drinks, then dance bars along the Coastal Highway with a loud, young feel. From October it mostly falls silent.

The outdoors are equally good but in different ways. Louisville's strength is its Olmsted parks, wooded hills for running and cycling, the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio and forest hiking nearby, with Mammoth Cave within reach.

Ocean City is about water and marsh: kayaking and paddleboarding in the back bays, wild ponies and birding on Assateague, and serious offshore fishing. It is flat and open, where Louisville is rolling and wooded.

Louisville has the better range of outings. Bourbon country around Bardstown, the thoroughbred farms and Keeneland near Lexington, Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace all make full, distinctive days out, though a driver is needed for the tastings.

From Ocean City the options are quieter small towns: Berlin's main street, Chincoteague's ponies and the resorts of Rehoboth and Lewes, with the ferry on to Cape May. Pleasant, but rarely the highlight of a trip.

Ocean City is built for children in a way Louisville is not. A lifeguarded beach steps from almost any street, amusement parks on the boardwalk, water parks, go-karts and mini-golf every few blocks keep a summer week busy, and rented condos make longer stays easy.

Louisville is a calm, easy place with good attractions, from the zoo and science centre to Kentucky Kingdom and the underground ziplines of the Mega Cavern. They are spread across the city, though, and summer heat is a factor.

Both are places for a car, but Ocean City is slightly easier once you are there. Its summer bus runs the length of the island and a tram works the boardwalk, so staying near the sea you can manage without driving, though the highway itself is grim to walk beside.

Louisville has no rail and a thin bus network. Downtown, Main Street and NuLu are walkable, but Churchill Downs, the Highlands and the parks all mean a drive or ride-hailing, helped by light traffic.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Louisville gives more reason to browse. NuLu's design shops and galleries, Bardstown Road's vintage, records and antiques, and bottles of bourbon found nowhere else make for good souvenirs.

Ocean City's shopping is T-shirts, surfwear, fudge and taffy along the boardwalk, with an outlet centre over the bridge for mainstream brands.

Costs are much alike, both carrying ordinary American prices with tax and tips on top. The difference is where the money goes. In Louisville, hotels are reasonable outside racing season but a car or ride-hailing adds to every day, and Derby week sends room rates soaring.

In Ocean City the beach is free and the town bus cheap, but oceanfront rooms in summer are expensive. Older motels set back from the sea, shared condos and the shoulder months of late May and September bring costs down.

Louisville is in another league here. The Kentucky Center hosts the orchestra, opera and ballet, Actors Theatre has long staged new American plays, and summer brings Shakespeare in the park, with bluegrass and Americana in the Bardstown Road bars.

Ocean City offers light entertainment only: touring comedians and tribute bands at the convention centre, free bandstand concerts on the boardwalk and cover bands in the bars.

Neither has a spa or bathing tradition, so both come down to a few hotel and day spas. Louisville's idea of unwinding is a slow porch afternoon or a drive through horse country, with the old spring resorts of French Lick within reach. Ocean City is noisy in high summer, and its calm comes from an early walk on an empty beach at the northern end or a shoulder-season stay.