Louisville or St. Augustine?

Louisville has no beach at all. The Ohio is a working river full of barges and strong currents, and summer swimming means a pool or a drive out to the reservoir lakes in the Kentucky countryside.

St. Augustine has the Atlantic ten to fifteen minutes from the old town. Anastasia Island's long, flat, pale sand runs from the dunes of the state park down to quieter Crescent Beach, and Vilano Beach lies north of the inlet. The surf is gentle and the water gets deep slowly. The sea is greenish rather than clear, and in winter the beach is for walking rather than swimming.

Louisville is the better place to eat and drink, and bourbon is the reason. Whiskey Row and the downtown distillery tasting rooms pour hundreds of Kentucky labels, and the local dishes, including the hot brown, Benedictine spread, burgoo and Derby pie, are worth trying. NuLu, the Highlands and Butchertown add Southern farm-to-table kitchens.

St. Augustine eats mostly from the water: shrimp, fried fish and oysters at casual places by the river and marsh creeks. The fiery datil pepper, brought by Minorcan settlers, gives its clam chowder and pilau a flavour of their own. Beyond a few chef-driven rooms, though, St. George Street caters mainly to passing tourists.

St. Augustine has the deeper history. Spain founded it in 1565, the coquina-stone Castillo de San Marcos still guards the bay, and the narrow lanes, walled gardens and old city gate of the Spanish quarter lead on to Flagler's Spanish Renaissance revival hotel with its Tiffany glass. Few American towns can show this many centuries in so small a space.

Louisville's sights are about sport and fame rather than age: Churchill Downs and the Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center and the Slugger Museum among Whiskey Row's cast-iron fronts. Its best walk is Old Louisville's Victorian mansions. Each city fills two or three days, but St. Augustine's history is more unusual.

Neither has much of a club scene, but Louisville gives you the longer night. Bardstown Road is a long strip of dive bars, patios and pubs, NuLu and Butchertown add bourbon and cocktail bars, and some bars hold late licences. Around the Derby the whole city goes out.

St. Augustine's evenings stay within a few old-town streets: courtyard taverns and patio bars around St. George and Hypolita Streets, plus a handful of beach bars on the island. Weekends get a little rowdy, but most places close well before the small hours, so it is better suited to a drink after dinner.

Both are pleasant rather than dramatic, but the scenery differs. Louisville has woods and limestone: Olmsted's hilly Cherokee and Iroquois parks, the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio, forest trails at Bernheim, and Mammoth Cave an easy day trip away.

St. Augustine is flat, open water country with no hills at all. You paddle through salt-marsh creeks among dolphins and ospreys, walk the dunes of Anastasia State Park and go birding in the Guana Tolomato Matanzas reserve. Its summer heat pushes outings into the early morning, and Louisville's winters can be just as off-putting.

Louisville has the stronger set of day trips, and they share a theme. Bardstown and the roads towards Frankfort and Lawrenceburg lead to stone warehouses and stills you can tour, Lexington has white-fenced thoroughbred farms and Keeneland, and Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace add history. You need a designated driver.

From St. Augustine the outings are more scattered: Jacksonville's museums and gardens, Victorian Fernandina Beach, Daytona's speedway, and Kennedy Space Center or Orlando, which mean a long day on the road. You need a car in both places.

Both work well with children, but the days look different. Louisville is a city of attractions: the zoo, the hands-on Kentucky Science Center, roller coasters and a water park at Kentucky Kingdom, and underground ziplines in the Mega Cavern. All of them are spread out, so you will be driving between them.

St. Augustine offers beach days and history that children enjoy. There are crocodilians and ziplines at the Alligator Farm, which has been open since 1893, cannon firings at the fort and a lighthouse to climb. The compact old centre makes outings easy, but thrill rides mean the drive to Orlando.

St. Augustine is easier without a car, at least in the old town. The fort, St. George Street, Flagler College and the bayfront are a short, flat walk apart, and sightseeing trolleys loop past them, so most people park once and walk. The beaches and lighthouse still mean a drive or a bike ride.

Louisville has no rail transit and buses are of little use to visitors. Only downtown and NuLu can be done on foot, while Churchill Downs, the Highlands, the zoo and the parks all need a car or ride-hailing. Traffic is light, though, so driving is easy.

The real difference is what you take home. From Louisville it is a bottle: distillery shops and liquor stores stock bourbons rarely found elsewhere, along with Derby hats and racing memorabilia, and Bardstown Road adds vintage clothing, records and antiques for an afternoon's browsing.

From St. Augustine it is more likely a jar of datil-pepper sauce or a piece of local art. St. George Street is mostly fudge, T-shirts and pirate souvenirs, but the galleries, antique dealers and craft shops on Aviles Street are better. Overall the two are evenly matched, and for mainstream brands both send you out of the centre, to suburban malls in Louisville and to an outlet mall by the interstate near St. Augustine. Neither is worth the trip for fashion.

The two cost about the same overall, but you pay in different places. Louisville's hotels are reasonable outside the racing season, but daily spending adds up through tax, tips and the cost of a car. During Derby week in spring, room rates jump to several times their usual level.

St. Augustine charges most for where you sleep. Historic inns and hotels in walking distance of the old town get expensive at weekends and in peak season, so the savings come from staying midweek or at highway motels. Its beaches and old streets cost nothing, just as Louisville's parks and riverfront are free.

Louisville has a proper season. The Kentucky Center is home to the city's orchestra, opera and ballet companies, Actors Theatre has a long record of staging new American plays, and Bardstown Road bars regularly put on bluegrass and Americana.

St. Augustine has one strong venue, the open-air amphitheatre in the woods on Anastasia Island, which books touring rock, country and folk acts. Otherwise there are cover bands on bar patios and a community theatre, and for opera or a full orchestral programme you have to go to Jacksonville.

Neither has a bathing tradition, and spas in both mean hotel treatment rooms. St. Augustine is the easier place to slow down, with quiet B&B verandas, courtyard gardens, a gentle walk along the bayfront seawall and the beach close by.

Louisville relaxes on a porch in the Highlands or on a drive through horse country. For a real spa break, the old mineral-spring resorts of French Lick and West Baden Springs are about an hour and a half away in Indiana.