Milwaukee or Nashville?

Milwaukee at least has real sand. Bradford Beach has volleyball courts and cabanas below the East Side bluffs, but Lake Michigan is cold, and a dip is a brief summer pleasure rather than a long swim.

Nashville has no beach at all, only reservoir lakes such as Percy Priest. The water there is warmer, but locals spend their days on pontoon boats, not lying on sand. Neither city is a reason to pack a swimsuit.

Nashville eats better. Hot chicken is a dish worth travelling for, the meat-and-three cafeterias and smoked barbecue give the city a clear Southern identity, and East Nashville and Nolensville Pike add chef-led cooking and immigrant kitchens.

Milwaukee's food is hearty Upper Midwest fare with German and Polish roots: Friday fish fry, frozen custard, cheese curds and the supper club. It wins on beer, with a brewing tradition going back to the city's beginnings and taprooms all over Walker's Point.

The two are evenly matched, but their sights are very different. Milwaukee's are art and industry: the Calatrava pavilion of the Art Museum on the lakefront, the Harley-Davidson Museum, and the brewing-era wealth of the Pabst Mansion and the Third Ward warehouses.

Nashville's sights are almost all about music, led by the Country Music Hall of Fame and a daytime tour of the Ryman. The Parthenon replica, the Frist in its Art Deco post office and the plantation history at the Hermitage widen the picture.

Nashville is far stronger here. Lower Broadway runs as one long party of multi-storey honky-tonks with live bands until the small hours, and it fills with hen and stag groups at weekends. East Nashville offers a calmer night in dive bars and cocktail lounges.

Milwaukee's night out is the corner tavern, with its old brewery signs and regulars at the bar, plus the student crowd on Water Street. It is friendlier and quieter, it is best on summer patios, and it goes indoors and slows down in winter.

Both offer gentle rather than dramatic landscapes. The difference is water against woods. Milwaukee's outdoors is the Lake Michigan shore, with the bluffs and ravines of Lake Park and long, flat cycle routes on the Oak Leaf Trail, and the glacial hills of Kettle Moraine about an hour away.

Nashville has wooded hills and creeks: deer and owls at Radnor Lake, forest walks in the Warner Parks, canoeing on the Harpeth and the Natchez Trace for cycling. It is best in spring and autumn, whereas Milwaukee's outdoor season is summer.

Milwaukee has the better day out because Chicago is only about an hour and a half away by train, a major city with no need for a car. Racine's Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, the stone mills of Cedarburg and the lakes of Madison fill the rest of the list.

Nashville's outings are small towns, history and whiskey: Franklin's Main Street and Civil War battlefields, Leiper's Fork, and the distilleries around Lynchburg. Chattanooga is the one bigger name, and at about two hours it is a long day.

Both work with children, and in many of the same ways, with a good zoo and a science centre in each. Milwaukee adds Discovery World's aquariums on the lakefront and the Mitchell Park Domes for cold days. Its whole summer lakefront is easy for families.

Nashville's appeal for children comes in odder forms, such as the Lane Motor Museum and the Parthenon. Families here have to work around the heat and the adult drinking downtown, while in Milwaukee it is winter cold that cuts the options.

Both are car cities, but Milwaukee is a little easier. The Riverwalk and The Hop streetcar link downtown with the Third Ward, parking is simple, and the lakefront trails suit a bike in summer.

Nashville's walkable core is small, covering Broadway, the Gulch and the riverfront. Beyond it, the Opry, the Hermitage and East Nashville are all a drive apart, there are only buses, and the interstates clog at rush hour.

Nashville has more to buy, and it has a theme: cowboy boots, rhinestone shirts, guitars both vintage and new, and the letterpress posters of Hatch Show Print. 12 South and East Nashville add independent boutiques.

Milwaukee shopping is a browse rather than a mission. You get design shops and galleries in the Third Ward warehouses and vintage on Brady Street, and most visitors take home Wisconsin cheese and beer rather than clothes.

Milwaukee is the cheaper city to visit. Hotels are well below big-city levels, a beer in a tavern and a fish fry cost little, and the lakefront and many festivals are free. Big festival or game weekends are the times when rates jump.

Nashville's downtown hotels are expensive, especially when groups fill the city at weekends, and the spread-out layout means a steady run of ride-hailing fares. What helps is that the honky-tonk bands play without a cover charge, and staying midweek or eating at hot chicken counters keeps costs down.

This is Nashville's great strength. You can see the Grand Ole Opry several nights a week, touring artists under the Ryman's famous acoustics, and songwriters playing their own hits in small rooms. Bluegrass and Americana clubs, the Schermerhorn concert hall and the bands on Broadway from late morning complete it.

Milwaukee has a solid set of resident companies, from the symphony to the Florentine Opera and the Rep, and the ornate Pabst Theater for touring acts. Its high point is Summerfest on the lakefront. Outside summer, the music is local in scale.

Neither city has a spa culture, though Milwaukee is the calmer place to rest. A walk along the lake or the Riverwalk is restful, and the resort village of Kohler is an hour north for a proper spa day.

Nashville's centre is built around noise and late nights. A quieter stay means basing yourself in the leafy streets of Belmont or Hillsboro and using a hotel or day spa.