Milwaukee or St. Louis?

Milwaukee at least has a real beach. Bradford Beach lies below the East Side bluffs, with volleyball courts and cabanas, and McKinley and South Shore stretch along the same lakefront. Lake Michigan is cold for most of the year, though, so plan on a summer afternoon on the sand rather than a beach trip.

St. Louis has nothing comparable. Its rivers are working waterways with strong currents, and in the humid summer the only way to cool off is a pool or a long drive to an Ozark reservoir.

The two eat about equally well, and both are rooted in beer, immigrant cooking and frozen custard. Milwaukee's table is German, Polish and Serbian. Its rituals are the Friday fish fry with potato pancakes and the wood-panelled supper club, with grazing at the Public Market and Mexican cooking on the South Side.

St. Louis has more dishes of its own: toasted ravioli, Provel-topped cracker-crust pizza, gooey butter cake and serious ribs. It also has more range by neighbourhood, from the trattorias of The Hill to the Bosnian grills of South Grand and the Saturday Soulard Market.

St. Louis has the bigger set of sights. The Gateway Arch and its museum of westward expansion, the Old Courthouse where the Dred Scott case began and the free Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park would anchor a trip on their own. The Cathedral Basilica's mosaics and the Wainwright Building add depth for anyone interested in architecture.

Milwaukee's strongest card is the Calatrava pavilion of the Milwaukee Art Museum, with the Harley-Davidson Museum a real draw for motorcycle fans. Beyond those, its brewing-era mansions, the Basilica of St Josaphat and the Third Ward warehouses make pleasant wandering rather than a long list of must-sees.

Milwaukee is the easier and livelier place for a night out. The neighbourhood tavern, with its brewery signs and pool table, is everywhere. Brady Street, Water Street and the Walker's Point and Third Ward taprooms sit close enough to drift between, and in summer the patios and beer gardens fill up.

St. Louis spreads its evenings across Soulard, Washington Avenue, the Grove and the Delmar Loop, often a taxi ride apart, and many streets go quiet early outside baseball season. Its advantage is live blues in the Soulard bars, which Milwaukee's tavern scene does not match.

Neither offers dramatic scenery, and the outdoors are about equal in quality but different in character. Milwaukee's centrepiece is water: the Olmsted-designed bluffs and ravines of Lake Park, a lakefront lined with parkland, flat trails for cycling and a river you can kayak through the centre, with the glacial hills of Kettle Moraine an hour away.

St. Louis looks inland, to the wooded Ozark foothills, river bluffs and caves at Castlewood and Meramec, and the Katy Trail for long rides. Its outdoor seasons differ too: Milwaukee is best from May to October, while St. Louis is at its best in spring and autumn and adds bald eagles on the river bluffs in winter.

Milwaukee has a slight edge, largely because Chicago is about an hour and a half away by train, with no car needed at either end. Closer in, Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings in Racine, the stone mills of Cedarburg and Kohler's gardens make easy outings.

St. Louis offers more history out of town. Cahokia Mounds, a UNESCO site, is only twenty minutes away, and the French colonial houses of Ste. Genevieve, the German wine towns of Hermann and Augusta and Mark Twain's Hannibal are all within reach. Almost all of them need a car.

St. Louis is the better city for children. The City Museum, a converted shoe warehouse full of climbing tunnels and slides, has no equal in Milwaukee. The zoo and science centre in Forest Park are free, and the Magic House and the Arch tram pods give children plenty more. Attractions are spread out, though, and summer afternoons are sticky.

Milwaukee still does well, with its large zoo, Discovery World's aquariums by the lake and the Mitchell Park Domes for a cold day. It works best in summer, when beach days, ball games and festivals fill the calendar. From November to March the cold cuts back what families will do outdoors.

In both cities a car does most of the work, and parking is easy in either. Milwaukee's centre is more compact. Downtown, the Third Ward and the lakefront join up on foot along the Riverwalk, and The Hop streetcar covers the core.

St. Louis has the MetroLink light rail, which is handy from the airport to Forest Park, downtown and the stadium. However, Soulard, The Hill and South Grand lie well off it, and the walkable districts are far apart.

Shopping is modest in both, and neither is worth planning a trip around. Milwaukee's best browsing is in the converted warehouses of the Historic Third Ward, and most visitors take home Wisconsin cheese, beer or Harley-Davidson gear. In St. Louis the most interesting street is Cherokee Street, with its antiques, vintage and Latin American shops. In both cities big-name fashion means a drive to the suburban malls.

The two cost roughly the same, cheaper than the coastal cities but still with tax and tips on every bill. Where you save differs. In St. Louis the zoo, the art museum, the history museum and the science centre are all free. Milwaukee's savings come from cheap tavern beer, fish fries and a lakefront that costs nothing.

Watch Milwaukee's big festival and game weekends, which push hotel rates up sharply. In St. Louis, set aside money for a hire car or taxis, since the city's sights and neighbourhoods are spread so far apart.

St. Louis has the deeper programme. Its symphony, founded in 1880, plays in the ornate Powell Hall. The Muny stages musicals outdoors in Forest Park, and the Opera Theatre runs an acclaimed early-summer season. On top of that is a real blues lineage, from Chuck Berry and W.C. Handy to the National Blues Museum and the bars that keep it alive through the week.

Milwaukee has a full set of companies for its size and the lovely 1895 Pabst Theater. Its big moment is Summerfest, weeks of bands on the lakefront stages. Outside summer the offering is more local in scale.

Neither city is a place to come for rest and treatments, but Milwaukee is a little better. The resort village of Kohler, about an hour north, offers a proper spa day, and the lakefront walks are calming. St. Louis offers only day and hotel spas in Clayton and the Central West End. For calm it relies on a slow morning in Forest Park or the Japanese garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden.