Memphis or St. Louis?

Neither city has a beach, and neither river is safe to swim in, so you won't find much difference here. In summer, cooling off in Memphis means a pool, a splash pad or a lake in the countryside, while from St. Louis the nearest open water worth the drive is a reservoir in the Ozarks.

The two are close, but they eat differently. Memphis is a barbecue city before anything else: pork ribs with a dry rub, pulled-shoulder sandwiches and oddities like barbecue spaghetti, with Delta tamales, catfish and fried chicken around them. It is the place to eat local and eat a lot.

St. Louis has a more mixed table. Toasted ravioli and Provel pizza are its own, the Italian trattorias of the Hill and the Bosnian grills of South Grand add range, and its beer culture runs from the historic Anheuser-Busch brewery to the Saturday Soulard Market.

Memphis puts its weight into a handful of museums of national importance. Graceland, Sun Studio and Stax trace rock and soul back to the rooms where they began, and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel tells the story of the movement. Away from these the historic centre is patchy, so the days go to museums rather than to wandering the streets.

St. Louis spreads its sights more widely. The Gateway Arch and its westward-expansion museum, the free Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park, the mosaics of the Cathedral Basilica and whole red-brick streets in Soulard and Lafayette Square give it more architecture to explore on foot.

Memphis is the better night out, mainly because of Beale Street. At weekends the street closes to traffic, drinks go from bar to bar and the crowd stays out late. It is touristy, but it gives the night a clear centre, and Midtown's Overton Square and Cooper-Young are there for a quieter evening.

St. Louis spreads its evenings across separate pockets: corner taverns in Soulard, dance bars on Washington Avenue, the Grove's late-night strip. It is friendly but local, and many streets go quiet early outside baseball season.

St. Louis has the better surroundings. Within an hour the land rises into the wooded Ozark foothills, with bluffs, caves and trails at Castlewood and Meramec, and further south are Elephant Rocks and Johnson's Shut-Ins. The Katy Trail and the confluence wetlands add cycling and birdwatching.

Memphis is flat floodplain, and its outdoors is mostly the river: walking or cycling the Big River Crossing into Arkansas, sunsets from the bluffs, and the lakes and bison of Shelby Farms Park.

Both have a good list of day trips, and you need a car for almost all of them, but they lead to different things. From Memphis, Highway 61 runs south into the blues country of the Delta, to Clarksdale's juke joints, with Oxford, Tupelo and Shiloh for literature, Elvis and the Civil War.

From St. Louis the choice is broader. Cahokia Mounds, a UNESCO site, is barely twenty minutes away, and there are French colonial houses at Ste. Genevieve, wine tastings in Hermann and Augusta, and Mark Twain's Hannibal.

St. Louis is much easier with children. The City Museum alone can fill a day, the zoo and Science Center in Forest Park cost nothing, and the Magic House, a theme park within driving distance and baseball at Busch Stadium round it out.

Memphis has a fine zoo, the Pink Palace planetarium and the ducks at the Peabody, but its main sights on music and civil rights are better suited to older children. Long drives and very sticky summers also make it harder going with small ones.

You will want a car in both cities, but St. Louis is slightly easier without one. MetroLink light rail links the airport, the Central West End, Forest Park and downtown, which covers many of the main sights.

Memphis has only heritage trolleys on Main Street and infrequent buses. Its walkable downtown is pleasant, but Graceland, Midtown and Shelby Farms are all a drive or a ride-hail away.

Neither city is a shopping destination, though St. Louis offers a little more browsing. Cherokee Street's antiques and vintage shops, the boutiques of the Central West End and the stalls of Soulard Market make a pleasant afternoon. In Memphis the most characterful buys are musical, such as vinyl from the record shops and blues and Elvis memorabilia, with small boutiques in Cooper-Young and on Broad Avenue.

Costs are broadly similar, and both cities are cheaper than the coastal cities without being budget destinations. The difference is in where the money goes. In Memphis, meals of barbecue and soul food are cheap, but Graceland and the other music sights charge full admission. In St. Louis, the zoo, art museum, history museum and science centre are all free, which helps a family budget. In both, a hire car or taxis add to the bill.

Both are serious music cities, but the music is different. Memphis is about roots music every night: 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.

St. Louis is stronger in the concert hall and the theatre. Its symphony, founded in 1880, plays in Powell Hall, and in summer the Muny stages musicals outdoors in Forest Park and the opera festival runs its season. It still has blues in Soulard and the National Blues Museum.

Neither city has a spa tradition, so rest comes from slow mornings rather than treatments. In Memphis that means an early walk in Overton Park or an evening on the bluffs above the river. St. Louis has the edge for quiet hours thanks to the Missouri Botanical Garden and its Japanese garden, and its pace is generally slower.