Nashville or Philadelphia?

Neither city is on the sea. In Nashville, swimming means the reservoir lakes, Percy Priest and Old Hickory, where locals spend hot weekends on pontoon boats rather than on sand. It makes a pleasant summer afternoon and nothing more.

Philadelphia at least has the real Atlantic within reach. Ocean City, Wildwood and Cape May on the Jersey Shore are a drive of one to two hours, with wide beaches and proper sea swimming in high summer. It is still a side trip rather than part of the stay.

The two cities eat equally well, just differently. Nashville's cooking is fried and smoked Southern food: hot chicken graded by heat, meat-and-three cafeterias, barbecue and biscuits, with Tennessee whiskey to drink. Nolensville Pike adds Kurdish and Vietnamese cooking.

Philadelphia is a sandwich and market city. Cheesesteaks, roast pork with broccoli rabe and hoagies come from corner delis, and Reading Terminal Market and the Italian Market are the places to graze. Its small bring-your-own-wine dining rooms in East Passyunk and Fishtown have no real counterpart in Nashville.

Nashville's sightseeing is almost entirely about music. The Country Music Hall of Fame, a daytime tour of the Ryman and the smaller star museums cover it, with the Parthenon replica and the Frist as the main detours. Two days is enough unless country music is your passion.

Philadelphia has much more. Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell sit among the Georgian streets of Old City and Society Hill, and the Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art are serious collections by any standard. Eastern State Penitentiary and the Mütter Museum add stranger corners, and together they fill most of a week.

Nashville is the bigger night out. Lower Broadway's multi-storey honky-tonks have a band on every floor and crowds into the small hours, and at weekends hen and stag groups turn the strip into one long party. East Nashville's dive bars and cocktail lounges are the quieter alternative.

Philadelphia goes out in neighbourhood bars instead: craft-beer halls in Fishtown, cocktails around Rittenhouse Square, corner taverns in East Passyunk and the long-established Gayborhood. Last call is at 2am. Neither city has much of a dance-club scene.

Both cities sit in gentle, green country without dramatic scenery, but Philadelphia puts more of it on your doorstep. The Wissahickon gorge in Fairmount Park gives real woodland walking within the city limits, and the Schuylkill River Trail runs from Center City out to Valley Forge.

Nashville's outdoors are spread out more. Radnor Lake and the Warner Parks offer easy trails, the Harpeth River suits a gentle canoe trip, and the Natchez Trace Parkway is good for cycling or a scenic drive. Spring wildflowers and autumn leaves are the times to go.

This is where Philadelphia pulls well ahead. Its place on the Northeast rail line puts New York, Baltimore and Washington within a day out by train, and Lancaster County's Amish farmland is an easy ride too. With a car you can add Gettysburg, Longwood Gardens and Cape May.

Nashville's outings are small-town and historical: Franklin's Main Street and Civil War battlefields, the village of Leiper's Fork, and the whiskey distilleries around Lynchburg. Chattanooga, about two hours away, is the most ambitious trip. All of them need a car.

Philadelphia is the easier city with children. The Franklin Institute's walk-through heart, the Please Touch Museum for under-eights, the dinosaur hall at the Academy of Natural Sciences and the country's oldest zoo are all close together, and the costumed guides of Old City make history lively for older children.

Nashville has good attractions too, including the zoo at Grassmere, the Adventure Science Center and the Lane Motor Museum's odd cars. However, they are far apart and reached by car, and Lower Broadway's drinking crowds are not a place for children.

In both cities the centre is walkable, but Philadelphia's centre is much larger. Penn's flat grid links Old City, Society Hill, Rittenhouse Square and the Parkway museums on foot, and subway lines, trolleys and a direct train to the airport cover the rest, even if the stations can be grim.

Nashville's walkable core is just Broadway, the Gulch and the riverfront. The Opry, the Hermitage, East Nashville and 12 South are each a drive away, there is only a bus network, and most visitors end up paying for ride-hailing or a hire car.

Nashville shopping is a specialist niche: cowboy boots, hats and rhinestone shirts along Broadway, some of the best guitar browsing anywhere, and letterpress posters from Hatch Show Print. Beyond that, 12 South has boutiques, and the big brands are out in the suburban malls.

Philadelphia offers a broader day out. There is Walnut Street around Rittenhouse Square, independent shops in Old City and Fishtown, Jewelers' Row and the food stalls of the two markets. King of Prussia mall is a short drive away, and the lack of sales tax on clothing helps.

Neither city is cheap, but Philadelphia is easier on the budget. Its founding sights in Independence National Historical Park are free, a hoagie makes a filling lunch, bringing your own wine cuts the cost of dinner, and walking the grid keeps transport costs down.

Nashville's weekend hotel rates rise sharply when groups fill the city, and ride-hailing between spread-out districts adds up. Its saving grace is the music, which costs nothing in the Broadway honky-tonks, where there is no cover charge.

Nashville is the stronger city for live music. The Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman's pews are famous in their own right, bands play on Broadway from late morning, and songwriter nights let you hear the hits played by the people who wrote them. Bluegrass and Americana fill the smaller rooms.

Philadelphia's strength lies elsewhere: classical music and theatre. The Philadelphia Orchestra, opera and ballet at the 1857 Academy of Music, recitals by Curtis Institute students and the Walnut Street Theatre make it the better choice if you prefer a concert hall to a bar stage.

Neither city is a place to unwind, and both rely on hotel and day spas rather than any bathing tradition. In Philadelphia you can also drive out to the Korean-style bathhouses in the suburbs or walk in the quiet Wissahickon gorge.

Nashville's calmer side is the leafy streets of Belmont and Hillsboro, with porch-front cafés and quiet parks, well away from the noise of downtown.