Nashville or New Orleans?

Neither city works for a beach vacation, so the difference is in how you get into the water. Nashville's reservoir lakes, Percy Priest and Old Hickory, are on the edge of town and have small swimming areas and pontoon boats on summer weekends.

New Orleans has a lake you don't swim in and a river you shouldn't. Its nearest sand is on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, well over an hour's drive away, where the sea is warm but shallow and murky, so most visitors settle for the hotel pool.

Nashville eats well within a narrow Southern range. There's fiery hot chicken, meat-and-three cafeterias, barbecue and biscuits, with chef-led kitchens in East Nashville and the Gulch and an international stretch of Nolensville Pike.

New Orleans has one of the most distinctive cuisines in the country. Creole and Cajun dishes are served in French Quarter dining rooms that have been open for more than a century, and in po'boy shops in Mid-City. Crawfish in spring, oysters in the cooler months and cocktails like the Sazerac, which was invented here, make eating itself a reason to visit.

Nashville's sightseeing is mostly about music: the Country Music Hall of Fame, the National Museum of African American Music and a daytime tour of the Ryman. Away from those, there's the Parthenon replica, the Frist in its Art Deco post office and the plantation houses of the Hermitage and Belle Meade, in a city that is mostly modern.

New Orleans offers more for anyone who enjoys historic streets. The French Quarter is a remarkably complete colonial town, with Jackson Square, the cathedral and the Cabildo at its heart. Add the Garden District mansions, the above-ground tombs and the National WWII Museum, and walking around is a sightseeing trip in itself.

Nashville's night centres on Lower Broadway, where multi-storey honky-tonks have a band on every floor and hen and stag groups fill the strip on weekends. East Nashville's dive bars and cocktail lounges are the quieter alternative.

New Orleans goes further. There's no legal closing time and you can carry drinks along the street, so a night can roam from Bourbon Street's neon to Frenchmen Street and the corner bars of the Bywater until dawn. Neither city is much for dance clubs. On Bourbon Street late at night, keep an eye on your pockets.

The two offer much the same amount of outdoors but very different landscapes. Nashville sits in rolling, wooded country. Radnor Lake and the Warner Parks have forest trails, the Harpeth River suits an easy paddle, and the Natchez Trace Parkway is good for cycling.

New Orleans is flat and wet, and its draw is the water. Boat and kayak trips go through cypress swamps with alligators and herons, and there are boardwalk trails in the Barataria Preserve. City Park's old live oaks and the levee path stay within town. In both cities, spring and autumn are the best seasons for being outside.

Both have a pleasant set of short excursions rather than famous destinations, but the themes differ. From Nashville, it's Civil War history in Franklin and Murfreesboro, whiskey distilleries around Lynchburg, and Chattanooga's riverfront at the outer limit.

From New Orleans, the River Road leads to the sugar plantations, where the Whitney tells the story of the enslaved people who worked there. Other choices are the capitol in Baton Rouge, quiet Gulf towns like Ocean Springs, and Cajun dance halls and boudin out west.

Children are about equally well looked after, in different ways. Nashville has the zoo at Grassmere, the hands-on Adventure Science Center, the Lane Motor Museum and a lakeside water park. Because the city is so spread out, you'll spend a lot of time in the car between them.

New Orleans adds more atmosphere. There are streetcar rides, a paddle steamer on the Mississippi, the aquarium, a carousel and a storybook garden in City Park, and parade beads along St. Charles Avenue. In return, parents need to choose carefully where they walk after dark and plan around the summer heat.

New Orleans is far easier without a car. The French Quarter, Marigny and Warehouse District are a flat walk from one another, and the historic St. Charles streetcar runs out through the Garden District to Uptown. It's slow, but it's charming.

Nashville's walkable core stops at Broadway, the Gulch and the riverfront. After that it's buses or ride-hailing to reach the Opry, East Nashville or 12 South, and the interstates clog at rush hour.

Nashville shopping is mostly cowboy boots, hats, guitars and Hatch Show Print's letterpress posters. Away from Broadway, 12 South and East Nashville have boutiques and record shops.

New Orleans has more to browse. Royal Street's antique dealers sell chandeliers and estate jewellery, Magazine Street runs for miles of independent and vintage shops, and Carnival masks are a genuinely local souvenir.

Nashville is the dearer of the two. Its downtown hotels fill with weekend groups and charge accordingly, and because the city is so spread out, ride-hailing fares mount up. The savings come from the music, since the Broadway honky-tonks charge no cover, and from cheap meals at meat-and-three cafeterias and hot chicken counters.

New Orleans is easier on the budget day to day. Po'boys, red beans and rice, corner bars and the streetcar all cost little, and walking the Quarter or stopping for street musicians costs nothing. Rooms are the main expense, and they cost much more at Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. Staying along the streetcar lines or coming in the summer heat brings the cost down.

Music is the main reason to visit either city, so the real question is which music you want. Nashville is about country and songwriting: the Opry, the Ryman's famous acoustics, bluegrass and intimate songwriter rounds. It also has a full formal season, with the symphony at the Schermerhorn and ballet and opera at the performing arts centre.

New Orleans is the home of jazz. Brass bands, funk, zydeco and traditional jazz play every night on Frenchmen Street, second-line parades fill Sunday streets, and Jazz Fest comes in spring. Its orchestra and opera are modest, so the music is mainly in the clubs and on the street.

Neither city has any spa tradition beyond hotel and day spas, and both have noisy party districts. Nashville's quieter side is the porch cafés and parks of Belmont and Hillsboro.

New Orleans makes slowing down a little easier, with courtyard guesthouse mornings, unhurried streetcar rides under the oaks and lazy afternoons in City Park.