Louisville or Virginia Beach?

These two are about as far apart on beaches as two cities can be. Louisville sits beside the Ohio, a river of barges and strong currents where nobody swims, so the only water is in pools or at reservoir lakes out in the countryside.

Virginia Beach is built around its sand. There is a long pale beach backed by the boardwalk, surf near the pier and gentler water on the Chesapeake side, with Sandbridge's dunes further south. The only catch is the short season, since the Atlantic is too cold for most swimmers from late autumn to late spring.

Louisville eats and drinks with more character. Bourbon is the centrepiece, poured in the bars of Whiskey Row and in downtown tasting rooms, and there are local dishes like the hot brown, burgoo and Derby pie. NuLu, the Highlands and Butchertown add a good spread of Southern and farm-to-table kitchens.

Virginia Beach is all about seafood: Lynnhaven oysters, blue crab and the day's catch at dockside places by the inlet. Away from that the choice narrows to chains and buffets on the resort strip, and many visitors drive to Norfolk for a more varied dinner.

Louisville gives you more to see. Churchill Downs and its museum, the Muhammad Ali Center and the Slugger and Frazier museums along Whiskey Row are enough for a couple of busy days. Old Louisville's Victorian blocks and Cave Hill Cemetery are good for slower afternoons.

Virginia Beach's history is concentrated at Cape Henry, where the colonists landed in 1607, with its old lighthouse and the early brick Thoroughgood House. After those and the Neptune statue there is little else, and anyone keen on history ends up driving up the peninsula.

Neither city is a clubbing destination, but Louisville has more variety in its bars. You can choose between Bardstown Road's long run of dives and patios, the bourbon and cocktail bars of NuLu, or the group-friendly Fourth Street Live, and some places stay open very late. Derby week brings the busiest nights of the year.

At Virginia Beach, going out means the summer Oceanfront: loud, casual beach bars and rooftop decks full of vacationers and sailors, plus a few calmer lounges at Town Center. Out of season it goes quiet early.

Virginia Beach has the edge for time outdoors, mostly because so much of it happens on the water. You can kayak out to watch dolphins, surf, paddleboard in the inlets, or walk through First Landing's cypress swamp and dunes. Back Bay and False Cape protect a long, empty barrier spit with winter waterfowl.

Louisville's outdoors are greener and more varied in height. There are Olmsted's wooded parks, the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio and real forest hiking at Bernheim, and Mammoth Cave is an easy drive away. The countryside is rolling and pleasant rather than coastal.

Both cities are good bases for day trips, and both need a car, but the trips have different themes. From Louisville, you'll mostly be visiting bourbon distilleries around Bardstown and Frankfort and the thoroughbred farms near Lexington, with Shaker Village and Lincoln's birthplace as quieter extras.

From Virginia Beach, the outings are about American history: Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown are about an hour away, Norfolk's waterfront is closer, and Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks is further south.

Virginia Beach is the more natural choice with children. Days centre on the beach, the aquarium with its turtles and otters, the boardwalk bikes and mini-golf. The calm bay shore suits toddlers, and a big theme park and Colonial Williamsburg are within an hour.

Louisville works well with children but without the seaside. You get a good zoo, a hands-on science centre, Kentucky Kingdom's rides and water park, and tram tours of the Mega Cavern under the city. Both cities are hot in summer and spread out enough that a car makes a family stay easier.

You'll need a car in both cities, and neither has useful public transport. Louisville's compact downtown and NuLu can be explored on foot and driving is easy, since traffic is mild and distances are short.

At Virginia Beach, staying on the Oceanfront lets you walk or cycle the boardwalk and use the summer trolley. Anywhere further out means driving, and summer traffic into the resort can be slow.

Neither city is somewhere you'd go for shopping, though what you bring home is different. In Louisville that's bourbon, from distillery shops with hard-to-find bottles, along with Derby hats, plus vintage clothes, records and antiques on Bardstown Road.

Virginia Beach offers malls, Town Center chains and plenty of surf shops and souvenir T-shirts along the Oceanfront.

Overall costs are similar, but they peak at different times. Louisville's hotels are reasonable for most of the year, and the parks and riverfront are free, but Derby week in spring pushes room rates up sharply.

Virginia Beach is expensive in summer and much cheaper once the beach season ends. In both cities, tipping, sales tax and the need for a car add up day by day.

Louisville has the fuller programme. The Kentucky Center is home to an orchestra, an opera company and a ballet, Actors Theatre has a long record of staging new American plays, and bluegrass and Americana bands play regularly along Bardstown Road.

Virginia Beach offers summer amphitheatre concerts and free stages on the boardwalk. For opera, symphony and the spring arts festival, you need to go to Norfolk.

Louisville has little to offer for a restful stay on its own terms: a few hotel and day spas, no bathing tradition, and the local habit of a slow porch afternoon in the Highlands or a drive out through horse country. For a proper spa break you have to drive about an hour and a half into Indiana, to the old mineral-spring resorts of French Lick and West Baden Springs.

Virginia Beach makes unwinding easier, mostly because the sea does the work. Its spas are also in the bigger hotels, but early walks on the boardwalk and quiet spring or autumn days by the water are calming in a way an inland city can't match. High summer is different, when the resort fills up and gets loud.