Memphis or Minneapolis?

Neither city is a beach destination, but only one gives you anywhere to swim. Minneapolis has sandy strips with lifeguards on Lake Harriet, Bde Maka Ska, Lake Nokomis and Cedar Lake, and on summer evenings locals cycle over for a swim or a paddleboard session, though the water is only warm enough from late June to early September.

Memphis has nothing like that. The Mississippi is a working river full of barges and is not for swimming, so in the long, sticky summer cooling off means a hotel pool or a drive out to a lake in the countryside.

The two cities eat equally well but in different ways. Memphis is worth the trip for its barbecue: pork ribs with a dry rub, pulled shoulder sandwiches with slaw and oddities like barbecue spaghetti, with fried catfish, greens and Delta tamales from the soul kitchens around them.

Minneapolis has no dish to travel for. Its strength is range: Somali, Ethiopian, Vietnamese and Mexican kitchens along Lake Street and Eat Street, Hmong markets, the Juicy Lucy, and brewery taprooms in Northeast. Come to Memphis to eat one regional style in depth, and to Minneapolis for variety.

Memphis has the more important sights. The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, Graceland, Sun Studio and the Stax Museum tell stories of national weight in the places where they happened, and they are the main reason many people visit.

Minneapolis is the better city for art. The Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Walker Art Center are stronger collections than anything in Memphis, and the Mill City Museum and the Stone Arch Bridge by St Anthony Falls show the city's flour-milling past. Neither has much of a historic centre to wander, so in both your time goes to museums.

Memphis is the livelier night out, mostly thanks to Beale Street, where the weekend crowd carries drinks from bar to bar and stays out late. It is loud and touristy, and the Midtown bars around Overton Square and Cooper-Young offer a quieter local alternative.

Minneapolis spreads its evenings across neighbourhoods instead: taprooms and old bars in Northeast, cocktail bars in North Loop warehouses, and a younger weekend crowd in Uptown. It is pleasant on summer patios, but bars close at 2am and winter empties the streets.

Minneapolis is the greener city by some distance. The 80km Grand Rounds loop strings together the Chain of Lakes, Minnehaha Falls and the wooded Mississippi gorge with hardly a road to cross, and the lakes are used for canoeing in summer and skating in winter. The bluffs of the St Croix valley are about an hour away.

Memphis has a few good outdoor spots on flat floodplain: the Big River Crossing walk into Arkansas, the lakes and bison of Shelby Farms, and the old-growth woods in Overton Park. Its humid summers leave spring and autumn as the only really good seasons for being outside.

Memphis has the more rewarding drives. Highway 61 runs south into the Delta, past Blues Trail markers to the juke joints of Clarksdale, and Oxford with Faulkner's house, Elvis's birthplace in Tupelo and the battlefield at Shiloh are all within about two hours. All of these trips need a car, and the towns are small.

Minneapolis's best outing is St Paul, with its Capitol, cathedral and Summit Avenue mansions, a light-rail ride away. Beyond that come Stillwater on the St Croix and the river towns around Lake Pepin, and then mostly farmland.

Minneapolis is much easier with children. The Mall of America has a full indoor amusement park and an aquarium on the light-rail line, and St Paul adds the Science Museum, the Children's Museum and the free Como Zoo. In summer the lake beaches and paddle boats make for easy days, and in winter the indoor attractions take over.

Memphis has a fine zoo in Overton Park, the Pink Palace planetarium and the much-loved march of the ducks at the Peabody. Its main museums on music and civil rights suit teenagers more than young children, and with the heat and the distances, almost every outing means getting back in the car.

Without a car, Memphis only gets you around a few downtown blocks. You can explore the riverfront core on foot and ride the old trolleys along Main Street. But the city is low and spread out, Graceland and Midtown are well beyond walking distance, and the buses are of little practical use. Most visitors end up driving or using ride-hailing from the first day.

Minneapolis lets you go much further on foot, by train and by bike. Light rail connects the airport, both downtowns and the big mall, so you can arrive and settle in without hiring anything. The cycle network reaches the lakes and river paths with very little traffic. You only really need a car for days out of town, and in deep winter the enclosed skyways keep downtown walkable when the streets are not.

Memphis is not a city to shop in. The best things to take home are records and music keepsakes, though most of what Graceland and Beale Street sell is ordinary tourist fare. Cooper-Young and Broad Avenue have a few small vintage and art shops worth a browse. There is no central street for an afternoon of shopping, though, and the chain stores are in suburban malls you have to drive to.

Minneapolis gives a shopper much more to work with. The Mall of America, the biggest in the country, is a train ride from downtown. Clothes there come without sales tax, which makes it a practical place to stock up. For something less standard, the North Loop's boutiques and the studios of Northeast sell local design and handmade work. Neither city does luxury well.

Memphis is a little cheaper. Hotels are reasonably priced outside the busiest weekends, and a barbecue lunch or a soul-food plate fills you up for little. Car hire and the full-price admission at Graceland and the other music sights eat into the savings.

Minneapolis costs a bit more, with American restaurant bills and convention-week hotel rates. Some of its best days are free, though: the Institute of Art, the Sculpture Garden and the lakes cost nothing, and light rail is cheap.

Both cities have something good on most nights, but of a different kind. In Memphis it is roots music: house bands playing blues and soul on Beale Street from the afternoon on, and free summer concerts at the Levitt Shell, where Elvis played an early show.

Minneapolis edges ahead on the formal stage. The Guthrie Theater, the Minnesota Orchestra, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra and a large circuit of theatres give it real depth, with First Avenue, the club from Purple Rain, at the centre of its rock scene. Choose it for theatre and concert halls, and Memphis for blues in a bar.

Memphis offers little for a restful stay. It has no bathing tradition, the pampering stops at a hotel spa or a day spa out in the suburbs, and a trip there tends to run on late nights. The calm moments come from being outdoors, in Overton Park early in the day or on the bluffs as the sun goes down over the river.

Minneapolis is clearly the better place to unwind, because it has the bathing culture Memphis lacks. Its Nordic heritage shows in winter, when saunas go up on the frozen lakes and bathers alternate between the heat and icy water or snow. Even without a sauna, the city's quiet, courteous pace and its lakeside paths make a stay feel restful. Anyone after a full spa resort, though, will not find one in either city.