Louisville or Rehoboth Beach?

There is no contest here. Louisville is a river city far from any coast, and the Ohio carries barges, not swimmers. In summer, swimming means a pool or a drive out to a reservoir lake in the Kentucky countryside.

Rehoboth is built around its sand. There is a broad lifeguarded beach in front of the boardwalk and wilder stretches at Cape Henlopen and Delaware Seashore State Park, and in July and August the Atlantic is warm enough for long swims.

Louisville has the deeper food scene and the stronger identity. Bourbon runs through it all, from the distillery tasting rooms downtown to the bars of Whiskey Row. The hot brown, burgoo and Derby pie belong to Kentucky, and NuLu, the Highlands and Butchertown have the better Southern and farm-to-table kitchens.

Rehoboth eats well for a small resort. It has chef-led restaurants off Rehoboth Avenue, steamed blue crabs, raw bars and serious craft beer. The range is narrower, though, and much of it scales down once summer ends.

Louisville gives you two or three full days of sightseeing. There are Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center, the Slugger and Frazier museums among the cast-iron façades of Whiskey Row, the Speed Art Museum and the Victorian mansions of Old Louisville.

Rehoboth has far less. A few old cottages survive from its beginnings as a Methodist camp meeting, and the Rehoboth Art League in Henlopen Acres is the main stop. Visitors keen on history usually drive to Lewes or out to the wartime towers at Cape Henlopen.

Both are bar places rather than club places, and they differ in character and season. Louisville goes out all year, in the dive bars and patios of Bardstown Road and the bourbon and cocktail bars of NuLu. Some bars are licensed to stay open very late, and the whole city is out around the Derby.

Rehoboth only really comes alive in summer. Its long history as an LGBTQ resort shows in the piano lounges and drag nights around Baltimore Avenue, and Dewey Beach next door has loud deck bars for a younger crowd. Out of season the town goes quiet early.

The outdoors is gentle in both places, but different in kind. Louisville's is wooded and green: Olmsted's Cherokee and Iroquois parks, the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio, forest hiking in Jefferson Memorial Forest and Bernheim, and Mammoth Cave within a drive.

Rehoboth's is coastal and flat. Cape Henlopen has tall dunes and trails, a bike route runs through woods and wetland to Lewes, and the inland bays are good for kayaking and sailing. Choose wooded hills and caves, or water and salt marsh.

Bourbon country is what sets Louisville's outings apart. Bardstown and the distilleries on the roads towards Frankfort and Lawrenceburg make the first day out. Lexington's thoroughbred farms and Keeneland, Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace fill several more. You need a car, and on distillery days a designated driver.

Rehoboth's excursions are fewer and mostly follow the coast. Historic Lewes is ten minutes away, the ferry crosses Delaware Bay to the Victorian streets of Cape May, and Ocean City and Chincoteague lie further south.

Rehoboth is the simpler choice with children. Funland's gentle rides, the ice cream and the lifeguarded sand are all steps from the rental houses, and Cape Henlopen adds a nature centre and calm bay water for the youngest. The catch is that it works mainly in summer.

Louisville can fill a family stay at any time of year, with the zoo, the Kentucky Science Center, Kentucky Kingdom and the tram tours of the Mega Cavern. Summers are hot, though, and the attractions are spread out, so you need a car.

Neither place has a train, but Rehoboth is far easier once you are there. Downtown, the boardwalk and the beach are a short walk apart on a flat grid, bikes are everywhere, and a seasonal trolley runs to Dewey Beach and the outlets. The hard parts are getting there on a clogged summer highway and finding a parking space.

In Louisville you need a car or ride-hailing for almost everything beyond Main Street and NuLu, because there is no rail and the bus network is thin. Traffic is mild and parking is easy, so the driving itself is painless.

Rehoboth has the better shopping, largely because Delaware charges no sales tax. Big outlet centres on the highway draw shoppers from several states, and Rehoboth Avenue mixes independent boutiques, bookshops and galleries with the beachwear stores.

Louisville's shopping is smaller and more particular, with design shops in NuLu and vintage clothes, records and antiques along Bardstown Road. Its best souvenir is a bottle of bourbon you would struggle to find at home.

Neither is cheap, but Louisville is a little easier on the wallet. Its hotels are moderately priced outside racing season, and the parks, the riverfront and Old Louisville cost nothing, although tax, tips and a hire car add up. Derby week in spring is the exception, when rooms cost several times their usual rate.

Rehoboth is at its most expensive in summer, just when most people want to go, as rooms and rental houses near the beach carry high-season premiums. Rates fall sharply in spring and autumn, and the free beach and tax-free shopping soften the total.

Louisville has a full programme of its own. The Louisville Orchestra, Kentucky Opera and Louisville Ballet perform at the Kentucky Center, Actors Theatre stages new American plays, and there are summer concerts at the Iroquois Amphitheater and bluegrass in the bars of Bardstown Road.

Rehoboth's offering is small and seasonal: free concerts at the bandstand on summer evenings, a local company staging musicals and cabaret, an autumn film festival and the piano bars. For bigger touring acts you drive further south.

Neither has a spa culture, so the difference is pace. Rehoboth is the more restful of the two outside high summer. In June, in September and on autumn weekends, there are walks on an empty boardwalk, bike rides under the pines and quiet evenings by the sea.

In Louisville, unwinding means an afternoon on a porch in the Highlands or a drive through horse country. For a proper spa break you drive about an hour and a half to the old mineral-spring resorts of French Lick and West Baden Springs in Indiana.