Louisville or Williamsburg, Virginia?

Neither is a beach destination, but Williamsburg can at least offer a swim in the sea. Yorktown's small river beach is about 20 minutes away, Buckroe Beach on the Chesapeake Bay is close, and the Atlantic sand at Virginia Beach is around an hour's drive.

Louisville is hundreds of kilometres from any coast, and the Ohio is too busy and fast-flowing for swimming. In summer that leaves pools and the reservoir lakes out in the Kentucky countryside.

Louisville is much the better place to eat and drink. Bourbon gives it a real identity, with whiskey bars on Whiskey Row and distillery tasting rooms downtown, and dishes such as the hot brown, Benedictine and Derby pie that you won't find elsewhere. NuLu, the Highlands and Butchertown have enough good restaurants to fill several evenings.

Williamsburg has its own Virginia flavours, including country ham biscuits, peanut soup and crab and oysters from the bay. However, the candlelit colonial taverns are more about the setting than the cooking, and Richmond Road is mostly pancake houses and buffets for the theme-park crowds.

Williamsburg has more history to explore. Colonial Williamsburg is a whole eighteenth-century capital where costumed blacksmiths and printers work along Duke of Gloucester Street, and the walk runs from the Capitol to the Wren Building of William & Mary. It is a careful reconstruction rather than an untouched old town, but there is nothing like it in Louisville.

Louisville's sights are about racing, sport and whiskey: Churchill Downs and the Derby Museum, the Muhammad Ali Center, and the museums among Whiskey Row's cast-iron façades. Add the Victorian mansions of Old Louisville and the Speed Art Museum, and you have a varied but less unified two or three days.

Louisville gives you a proper night out, though it is mostly bars rather than clubs. You can work your way along the dives and patios of Bardstown Road, drink bourbon in NuLu or join the groups at Fourth Street Live, and some bars stay open very late.

Williamsburg goes quiet early. The student pubs near the college and a few taprooms on the edge of town are about all there is, and for most visitors a candlelit ghost walk is the late part of the evening.

Louisville has more to offer outdoors without leaving the city. Olmsted's Cherokee and Iroquois parks have wooded hills, you can walk out on the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio, and Bernheim Forest and Mammoth Cave are within a short drive.

Around Williamsburg the land is flat Tidewater, with tidal creeks, marsh and estuaries. It is better for a gentle bike ride along the Colonial Parkway or kayaking among ospreys and eagles than for walking in the hills.

Both make good bases for days out, and in both cases you'll need a car. Louisville's outings are about bourbon and horses: the distilleries around Bardstown and Lawrenceburg, and the thoroughbred farms and Keeneland racecourse near Lexington.

Williamsburg's day trips are about early American history. Jamestown and Yorktown are each under half an hour away, the James River plantation houses line Route 5, and Richmond is about an hour's drive.

Williamsburg is built for family vacations in a way Louisville isn't. A big theme park and water park sit next to a historic town where children can join a parade, watch a musket firing or question a blacksmith. Jamestown's ships and forts are close by, and the many motels with pools make the evenings easy.

Louisville is still pleasant with children, thanks to its zoo, the hands-on science centre, Kentucky Kingdom and the underground ziplines at the Mega Cavern. The difference is that these are spread around a city rather than grouped together for families.

You will want a car in both places, but for different reasons. In Louisville the problem is how spread out everything is. Downtown and NuLu are close enough to walk between, but Churchill Downs, the Highlands bars and the Olmsted parks each mean a drive or a ride-hail. The city is compact and its roads uncrowded, so driving is easy.

Williamsburg is the easier of the two, because its main sight is best seen on foot. Once you have parked, the Historic Area, Merchants Square and the college form one flat stretch that is largely free of cars by day, and the Amtrak stop near the centre means you can even arrive by train. It is Busch Gardens, the outlets, Jamestown and Yorktown that send you back to the car.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Williamsburg has a little more to offer. Colonial-style shops sell hand-made pewter, pottery and printed books, Merchants Square adds gift and kitchen stores, and there is a large outlet centre on Richmond Road.

Louisville's best buys are bottles of bourbon that are hard to find elsewhere, along with Derby hats. For browsing, there are vintage and record shops on Bardstown Road and a few boutiques in NuLu.

Overall the two cost much the same, but your money goes on different things. In Louisville, hotels are reasonable outside racing season, and many of the best things, such as the parks, the riverfront and Old Louisville's streets, are free. Daily meals, tips and ride-hailing add up, though, and Derby week in spring pushes room prices up several times over.

In Williamsburg, rooms are easy to find at reasonable rates, but the big expense is admission. Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown and the theme parks each charge their own fee, so check combination passes before you go.

Louisville has the much fuller programme. The Kentucky Center is home to the city's orchestra, opera and ballet, Actors Theatre has a long record of staging new American plays, and the bars of Bardstown Road regularly have bluegrass and Americana bands.

In Williamsburg, performance is mostly part of the colonial setting: candlelit recitals, period theatre and fife-and-drum corps. Student productions at the college and theme-park shows add a little, but for a professional orchestra or theatre you would need to drive to Richmond or Norfolk.

Williamsburg is the easier place to slow down. The spas at its historic inn and the golf resorts on the James River are close at hand, and once the day-trippers leave, the empty colonial greens and the wooded Colonial Parkway are peaceful places for an early walk or a slow drive.

In Louisville, wellness is limited to hotel spas. For a real spa break you would drive about an hour and a half to the old mineral-spring resorts of French Lick and West Baden Springs in Indiana.