Louisville or Pigeon Forge?

Neither is a beach destination, as both lie hundreds of kilometres inland. In Louisville the Ohio is a working river and not safe for swimming, so summer means pools or a drive to the Kentucky reservoir lakes. Pigeon Forge has a little more choice: Douglas Lake to the north-east, wading pools among the boulders in the national park streams, and the water park beside Dollywood.

Louisville eats far better. Bourbon runs through everything, from the bars of Whiskey Row to the distillery tasting rooms downtown. The city has its own dishes in the hot brown, burgoo and Derby pie, and you'll find Southern farm-to-table cooking in NuLu, the Highlands and Butchertown.

Pigeon Forge goes for quantity over ambition: pancake houses, Southern buffets, steakhouses and chains along the Parkway. Its local touches are moonshine tastings and fudge from around the Old Mill. Visitors after a serious meal usually drive to Knoxville or Asheville.

Louisville has two or three days of real sights. These include Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center, the museums among the cast-iron fronts of Whiskey Row, the Speed Art Museum and the Victorian mansions of Old Louisville.

Pigeon Forge's attractions are built for entertainment, such as a half-scale Titanic and novelty museums. Its one real historic building is the Old Mill of 1830. For mountain history, the log cabins and churches inside the national park offer more than the town itself.

Louisville has a proper bar scene, if not much in the way of clubs. There are dive bars and patios along Bardstown Road, bourbon and cocktail bars in NuLu and Butchertown, and late licences that let a night run on, and the whole city comes out at Derby time. Evenings in Pigeon Forge wind down around ten, after the dinner shows and go-karts. Adults who want a drink have sports bars, brewpubs and moonshine tasting rooms, or a drive to Gatlinburg.

Pigeon Forge is the gateway to real mountain country. Half an hour away, the Great Smoky Mountains rise to more than 2,000m. There are waterfall walks, the climb to Mount LeConte, the Appalachian Trail along the crest and black bears in Cades Cove, plus spring wildflowers and October colour.

Louisville's outdoors are gentler and closer at hand: Olmsted's Cherokee and Iroquois parks, the Big Four Bridge over the Ohio and the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio. Bernheim Forest has woodland hiking and Mammoth Cave is an hour and a half away, but the rolling farmland is never a match for the Smokies.

Bourbon country is the outing that sets Louisville apart. Around Bardstown, Frankfort and Lawrenceburg, rolling country roads lead from one distillery to the next, with tours and tastings among the stone warehouses and stills. Lexington adds the thoroughbred farms and Keeneland, and Shaker Village, Lincoln's birthplace and the river town of Madison fill further days, so the choice runs wider than it does from the mountains.

Pigeon Forge's best trips are to Asheville for the Biltmore Estate and to Knoxville's Market Square, with Cherokee across Newfound Gap and Gatlinburg next door. After that the list narrows to small places such as Dandridge and Townsend. From either base, nearly every trip needs a car.

Pigeon Forge exists for families. Dollywood, with its roller coasters, crafts and seasonal festivals, anchors a strip of go-karts, mini-golf and mountain coasters. Big cabins and water-park hotels make group stays simple, though the Parkway traffic in peak season tests your patience.

Louisville is a good, quieter alternative. It has the zoo, the Kentucky Science Center, the rides and water park at Kentucky Kingdom, and underground ziplines at the Mega Cavern. There is less of it, though, and it is spread across the city rather than lined up along one road.

You need a car in both places, but Louisville is the easier of the two. Downtown, the waterfront and NuLu can be explored on foot, and the drive to Churchill Downs or the parks is quick in light traffic. Pigeon Forge is a multi-lane strip where you can walk only inside the attraction complexes. The Parkway trolley is slow, summer, October and Christmas bring long queues of cars, and the park trailheads can only be reached by road.

Neither is a shopping destination, but they sell very different things. Louisville's finds are local: design shops in NuLu, vintage clothing, records and antiques on Bardstown Road, and bourbon bottles that are hard to find elsewhere. Pigeon Forge relies on outlet malls for American brands, along with handmade pottery, quilts, baskets and woodwork from around the Old Mill and the crafts community above Gatlinburg.

Your money goes a little further in Pigeon Forge. Thousands of motel rooms and cabins keep lodging reasonable outside the peak weeks, a shared cabin is cheap per person, and breakfast houses and buffets cost little. Theme park days and dinner shows are where the bill adds up.

Louisville's hotels are moderately priced outside the racing season. Meals and drinks carry tax and a tip on top, though, and with little useful public transport, getting around pushes the daily spend higher. Derby week sends room rates far above normal, so travellers on a budget should avoid it.

The two offer a similar amount of live performance, but the styles could hardly be more different. At the Kentucky Center, Louisville has its orchestra, Kentucky Opera and Louisville Ballet. Actors Theatre stages new American plays, there is Shakespeare in the park in summer, and the bars play bluegrass.

In Pigeon Forge, the Parkway theatres put on country and gospel revues, comedy, magic and dinner shows every night, and Dollywood adds bluegrass and Appalachian music through the day. It is broad family entertainment. For opera or serious theatre you have to go to Knoxville.

Neither has a bathing culture, and in both the spa treatments are limited to hotel and day spas. Pigeon Forge is a little better for simple rest, as long as you book a hillside cabin with a porch and a private hot tub well above the neon and traffic of the strip. Louisville's idea of calm is a slow afternoon in the Highlands or a drive through horse country. The old mineral-spring resorts of French Lick and West Baden Springs are an hour and a half away in southern Indiana.