Memphis or Milwaukee?

Neither city is a beach destination, but only Milwaukee has a beach at all. Bradford Beach on Lake Michigan has sand, volleyball courts and a crowd on summer weekends. The fresh water is cold for most of the year and only swimmable from late June into early September.

In Memphis the Mississippi is for watching from the bluffs, not for swimming. Its summer is much hotter, and the only ways into the water are a hotel pool or a drive out to a lake in the countryside.

Both cities feed you heavily and regionally, and neither has much fine dining. The difference is what lands on the plate. Memphis is a barbecue city first, with dry-rubbed pork ribs or pulled shoulder and slaw, backed up by fried chicken, catfish and Delta tamales.

Milwaukee eats in the German and Polish tradition of the Upper Midwest: the Friday fish fry, bratwurst, cheese curds, frozen custard and an evening at a supper club. Beer matters more there, with the old brewery buildings and taprooms in Walker's Point. Memphis has a smaller craft scene in Cooper-Young.

Memphis has the stronger sights, and they matter to the whole country. Graceland, Sun Studio and the Stax Museum cover the music, and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel is one of the most moving museums in the United States. The historic centre is patchy, so your days go to these few stops.

Milwaukee spreads its sights more evenly, with nothing on that scale. There is the Calatrava wing of the Art Museum on the lakefront, the Harley-Davidson Museum, the Pabst Mansion from the brewing era and the cream-brick Third Ward. Together they fill two or three pleasant days.

The two cities go out about as much as each other, but in different places. In Memphis the night gathers on Beale Street, where you can carry a drink from bar to bar among a loud tourist crowd and live bands. Locals prefer the quieter bars of Overton Square and Cooper-Young.

Milwaukee spreads its drinking across corner taverns on nearly every block, with regulars at the long bar and a pool table at the back. Water Street draws the sports crowd, and Walker's Point has the craft beer and the LGBTQ bars. Neither city has a real club scene, and Milwaukee's evenings get much quieter in winter.

Milwaukee gets more out of its setting. Lake Michigan runs the length of the city, with Olmsted's Lake Park, long flat trails such as the Oak Leaf and kayaking on the river through the centre. The glacial hills and lakes of Kettle Moraine are about an hour away.

Memphis is flat floodplain, and the Mississippi is its main feature. You can walk the Big River Crossing into Arkansas, watch sunsets from the bluffs, or see the bison and lakes of Shelby Farms Park. The humid summers push outdoor time into spring and autumn.

Milwaukee has the easier and broader list, led by Chicago, about an hour and a half away by train with no car needed. Madison, Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings in Racine, the stone mills of Cedarburg and the lakeside mansions of Lake Geneva add plenty of variety.

Memphis has a narrower list with a strong theme: Delta blues country down Highway 61 to Clarksdale, Faulkner's Oxford, Tupelo and the Shiloh battlefield. It rewards music and history pilgrims, but every outing needs a car and ends in a small town.

Milwaukee is the easier choice with children. The County Zoo, the aquariums at Discovery World, a children's museum for the youngest and the Mitchell Park Domes for cold days are joined in summer by Bradford Beach, baseball games and the lakeside festivals.

Memphis has a fine zoo in Overton Park, the Pink Palace planetarium and the Peabody ducks. Its main museums suit teenagers more than small children, though, and the sticky summers and long drives make the days harder work.

Both cities need a car once you leave the walkable centre, but Milwaukee's centre is larger and better connected. The Riverwalk, The Hop streetcar and usable buses link downtown, the Third Ward and the East Side, and parking is easy to find.

In Memphis the walkable part is downtown, along with the Main Street trolleys. Graceland, Midtown and Shelby Farms are far apart, the buses are of little use to a visitor, and a car or ride-hail is the norm.

Nobody travels to either city to shop, but Milwaukee has a little more to browse. The warehouse boutiques and galleries of the Third Ward and the Wisconsin cheese and sausage at the Public Market make a pleasant afternoon. In Memphis the best finds are vinyl from the record shops and music memorabilia, with small boutiques on Broad Avenue and in Cooper-Young. In both cities, the big brands are in suburban malls.

Costs are close, and both cities are easy on the wallet by American standards. In Memphis barbecue and soul-food plates are cheap, but Graceland and the other music sights charge full admission. In Milwaukee cheap tavern beer and the free lakefront and parks make up for tax and tips on sit-down meals.

In both cities a hire car adds to the bill. Big festival periods push hotel rates up sharply: the spring festivals in Memphis, and festival and game weekends in summer in Milwaukee.

Memphis is the stronger city for live music, and its strength is roots music you can hear any night of the year. Beale Street has house bands from the afternoon on, Midtown has rock and hip-hop, and in the warm months the Levitt Shell, where Elvis once played, holds free concerts.

Milwaukee's strength is the formal arts, with a full set of companies for symphony, opera, ballet and repertory theatre, plus the ornate Pabst Theater. Its biggest music event is Summerfest on the lakefront, so outside summer its programme is solid but local in scale.

Neither city has a spa tradition, but Milwaukee is the calmer place to stay. The pace is slower, walks along the lakefront and the Riverwalk are genuinely restful, and the resort spas of Kohler are about an hour's drive north.

Memphis is built around late nights and loud music. Rest there means a hotel spa, or an early walk in Overton Park before the heat sets in.