Louisville or Panama City Beach?

This is the starkest difference between the two. Louisville sits on a working river with barges and strong currents, and the nearest swimming is in pools or the reservoir lakes out in the countryside.

Panama City Beach is built around some 43km of powder-white sand and clear green Gulf water, with calmer spots at the western end, the St. Andrews lagoon and the boat trip out to Shell Island. Just watch the flags, because rip currents are a real hazard.

Louisville eats and drinks with far more character. Bourbon runs through everything, from Whiskey Row bars to downtown distillery tasting rooms. The local dishes are distinctive too, among them the hot brown, burgoo and Derby pie, and NuLu, the Highlands and Butchertown have the better Southern and farm-to-table kitchens.

Panama City Beach does one thing well: casual Gulf seafood such as grouper, shrimp baskets and local oysters eaten on dockside decks. Beyond that, chains and themed restaurants along Front Beach Road take up most of the choice.

Louisville gives you two or three full days of sightseeing tied to horse racing, baseball bats, bourbon and Muhammad Ali. It also has the Speed Art Museum, the cast-iron fronts of Main Street and the Victorian blocks of Old Louisville to fill the gaps.

Panama City Beach is a postwar resort strip of condo towers with almost nothing in this line. The small Man in the Sea Museum and the older streets of St. Andrews across the bay are about all there is.

Neither town is a clubbing destination, but Louisville offers the fuller night out. Bardstown Road's dive bars and patios, the bourbon and cocktail bars of NuLu and late licences mean an evening can carry on.

Panama City Beach's nights are about sunset drinks on decks over the sand and cover bands at Pier Park. It is lively in summer, rowdy with students in March and quiet early for the rest of the year.

The two are on a par for the outdoors, but the settings could hardly be more different. Louisville offers wooded hills in its Olmsted parks, the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio, forest hiking at Bernheim and Mammoth Cave within reach.

Panama City Beach is flat and coastal, and most of what it offers happens on the water. Expect dunes and snorkelling at St. Andrews, dolphin trips, kayaking on the bay and diving on offshore wrecks.

Louisville has the richer choice of outings. The distilleries around Bardstown and toward Frankfort are the main draw, joined by Lexington's thoroughbred farms and Keeneland, Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace.

From Panama City Beach, the planned pastel towns along Scenic Highway 30A make a pleasant afternoon, and Apalachicola's old oyster port is worth the longer drive. The rest is mostly more coastline. Both places need a car for any of it.

Panama City Beach is the easier family choice, because the whole town is set up for it. There is shallow warm water, condos with pools, a water park, a marine park and mini-golf all along the strip. Avoid March, though, when spring break takes over.

Louisville does well too, with a good zoo, the hands-on Kentucky Science Center, Kentucky Kingdom and the underground tram rides of the Mega Cavern. Those attractions are spread out, though, and there is no beach to fall back on.

Both are car towns, but Louisville is the more manageable. Downtown, the waterfront and NuLu can be walked, and traffic stays light for the short drives to Churchill Downs or the Highlands.

Panama City Beach strings out along roughly 43km of highway with patchy pavements and a slow trolley-bus, and Front Beach Road can crawl in summer. Once parked, though, you can stroll along the sand.

What you carry home is the real difference here. Louisville's best buys are local: bourbon bottles rarely sold elsewhere, Derby hats and racing memorabilia, plus vintage clothes, records and antiques along Bardstown Road and a few design boutiques in NuLu.

Panama City Beach keeps to the mainstream, with chain stores and a department store at Pier Park, shark-mouthed beachwear and souvenir warehouses on the strip, and surf shops for swimwear. For anything more individual, drive west to the boutiques in the 30A towns. Shopping alone is no reason to pick either town.

Panama City Beach works out a little kinder on the wallet, chiefly because condos with kitchens let you cook and off-season rates fall sharply, especially for long winter stays. Summer on the beachfront is still not cheap.

Louisville's hotels are moderately priced outside racing season, but tips, tax and hire cars push daily costs up. During Derby week, room rates multiply.

For a night of live performance, the two are far apart. In Louisville you can plan an evening around a proper seated show through most of the year, whether that is a classical concert, a new play or a touring musical, and in summer you can take a picnic to an open-air stage in one of the parks. Even an unplanned night on Bardstown Road often ends with a bluegrass or Americana band, music with deep roots in Kentucky.

In Panama City Beach, live music is mostly background: a singer with a guitar or a band playing familiar hits while you eat and drink near the water. For anything with a stage and a printed programme you have to drive across the bay to Panama City, and the programme there is small. Treat it as a pleasant extra after a day on the beach, while in Louisville a show can be the reason to go out.

Louisville's idea of unwinding is a slow afternoon on a Highlands porch or a drive through horse country, with only hotel and day spas in town. For a proper spa break, the grand old mineral-spring resorts of French Lick and West Baden Springs are about an hour and a half away in southern Indiana.

Panama City Beach is a little better for switching off, though that comes from the setting rather than its few resort spas. From autumn to spring the sands empty and long sunset walks set the pace. In summer and during spring break, the town is loud and crowded.