Minneapolis or Nashville?

Neither city has a sea, but Minneapolis does lake swimming much better. Bde Maka Ska, Lake Harriet, Lake Nokomis and Cedar Lake have sandy strips and summer lifeguards right inside the city, and you can cycle there for an evening swim.

Nashville's swimming is on the Percy Priest and Old Hickory reservoirs at the edge of town. The water is warmer and the season longer, but local life there means pontoon boats rather than sand. In both cities it makes an afternoon out, not a reason to come.

The two cities eat about equally well, in different directions. Nashville has a cooking of its own: hot chicken, meat-and-three cafeterias, smoked barbecue and Tennessee whiskey, with chefs in East Nashville and the Gulch reworking Southern produce.

Minneapolis has no draw to match apart from the Juicy Lucy. Its strength is the immigrant kitchens along Lake Street and Eat Street, from Somali and Ethiopian to Vietnamese and Hmong, plus the brewery taprooms of Northeast. Go to Nashville to eat the South and to Minneapolis for range.

The two are close, but the subjects differ. Minneapolis is an art city, with the encyclopedic and free Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Walker's contemporary collection and its sculpture garden, and flour-milling history beside St Anthony Falls.

Nashville's sights are mostly about music: the Country Music Hall of Fame, the National Museum of African American Music and a daytime tour of the Ryman. The Hermitage and Belle Meade cover the region's harder plantation history, and the full-scale Parthenon in Centennial Park adds an odd, memorable extra.

Nashville is by far the stronger night out. Lower Broadway is a run of multi-storey honky-tonks with a band on every floor and crowds into the small hours, and East Nashville's dive bars and cocktail lounges offer something quieter.

Minneapolis spreads its evenings across Northeast taprooms, North Loop cocktail bars and weekend crowds in Uptown, and summer patios are its best moments. Bars shut at 2am and winter empties the streets. Neither city has much of a club scene.

Minneapolis gives you more time outdoors, mainly because its lakes, river and parkland are inside the city, a short ride from downtown rather than a drive away. Its wilder country is also close. The Minnesota Valley wildlife refuge lies near the airport, and the rock bluffs of the St Croix valley are about an hour away. What it lacks is height: the land is flat to gently rolling, and the long, severe winters freeze the lakes for months.

Nashville sits in more shapely country of wooded hills, limestone creeks and farmland, and Radnor Lake's deer and owls make a quiet walk close to town. The rest is spread around the edges: forest trails in the Warner Parks, an easy paddle on the Harpeth and the Natchez Trace Parkway for cycling or a slow drive, with Mammoth Cave a long day away. It suits a walk or a scenic outing better than a trip planned around the outdoors.

Nashville has more to drive to. Franklin's preserved Main Street and Civil War battlefields are half an hour away, Leiper's Fork and Stones River are close, and the Jack Daniel's and George Dickel distilleries make a whiskey outing. Chattanooga is just within reach for a long day.

From Minneapolis the best excursion is St Paul, a light-rail ride away, followed by Stillwater on the St Croix and the river towns around Lake Pepin. Beyond those it is mostly farmland, and anything past St Paul needs a car.

Minneapolis is easier with children, largely because so much of it works whatever the weather. The Mall of America's indoor amusement park and aquarium are on the light rail, and St Paul adds the Science Museum, the Children's Museum and the free Como Zoo. Summer brings lake beaches and paddle boats.

Nashville has good attractions in the Zoo at Grassmere, the Adventure Science Center and the Lane Motor Museum, but they are spread out and reached by car. The downtown everyone comes to see is built around adult drinking.

Minneapolis is the easier city without a car. Two light-rail lines link the airport, downtown, the university and St Paul, the skyways carry you across downtown in winter, and protected bike lanes and the Midtown Greenway reach the lakes.

Nashville has a walkable core around Broadway, the Ryman and the Gulch, and beyond that only buses. The Opry, the Hermitage, East Nashville and 12 South all mean ride-hailing or a hire car, with heavy interstate traffic at rush hour.

Minneapolis has more range. The Mall of America's hundreds of stores are a light-rail ride away, clothing carries no sales tax, the North Loop has independent boutiques and Northeast has makers' studios.

Nashville's shopping is narrower but has more character: boots, hats and rhinestone shirts on Lower Broadway, vintage and new guitars, and letterpress posters from Hatch Show Print. For mainstream or luxury brands you have to go out to the suburban malls in Green Hills.

Neither is cheap for visitors from abroad, but Minneapolis is easier on the wallet. Hotels are moderate by American standards, and the Institute of Art, the Sculpture Garden, the lakes and the parks are all free.

Nashville's downtown hotels climb steeply on weekends when the groups arrive, and ride-hailing across a spread-out city adds up. What saves money there is that the honky-tonks on Broadway charge no cover for their bands.

This is the strongest suit of both cities, and Nashville still comes out ahead because music is what people travel there for. The Opry, the Ryman's acoustics, bands on Broadway from late morning and songwriter nights in small rooms mean a choice of live shows every night.

Minneapolis leans towards the stage. The Guthrie, the Hennepin Avenue theatres and the Children's Theatre Company lead a large theatre scene, with the Minnesota Orchestra and First Avenue, the Purple Rain club, for music. Choose it for theatre and Nashville for songs.

Neither city is a spa destination, but Minneapolis has a tradition to offer. In winter, Nordic saunas are set up on the frozen lakes, with a cold plunge or a roll in the snow, and at dusk the city winds down with walks around a lake.

Nashville has hotel and day spas and quiet streets in Belmont and Hillsboro, but its centre is built for noise and late nights.