Nashville or Pigeon Forge?

Both are far inland, so neither is a beach destination and swimming means reservoirs. Nashville's Percy Priest and Old Hickory lakes are on the edge of the city, with small swimming areas and pontoon boats, so a summer afternoon on the water is easy to fit in.

Pigeon Forge has less to offer here. Douglas Lake is a drive away, so most visitors use the water park beside Dollywood or a hotel pool. The more memorable swim is wading among the boulders in the mountain streams of the national park.

Nashville eats far better. Hot chicken is a genuine local dish, meat-and-three cafeterias and barbecue cover the Southern classics, and East Nashville, Germantown and the Gulch add more ambitious cooking. Nolensville Pike has a run of Kurdish, Mexican and Vietnamese places.

Pigeon Forge fills you up but rarely interests you. The Parkway is lined with pancake houses, buffets of fried chicken and cobbler, steakhouses and chains. Moonshine tastings and fudge are the local touches, and for a serious meal you drive to Knoxville.

Nashville has real sights, even if most are about music. There is the Country Music Hall of Fame, the National Museum of African American Music and a daytime tour of the Ryman, plus the Parthenon replica, the Frist in its Art Deco post office, and the plantation history at the Hermitage and Belle Meade.

Pigeon Forge's attractions are built for fun, such as the half-scale Titanic and the illusion museums. Its links to the past are the Old Mill of 1830 and Dollywood's craft demonstrations, and the log cabins and churches inside the national park tell the mountain story better.

The gap here is wide. Lower Broadway in Nashville runs as one long party of honky-tonks with a band on every floor. East Nashville and Midtown are quieter, with dive bars, cocktail lounges and a student crowd. Nights here are about drinking with live music rather than clubbing.

In Pigeon Forge, a night out means go-karts and lit-up attractions until about ten, then a few sports bars, brewpubs and moonshine rooms. Adults who want a proper night out drive to Gatlinburg or settle into the cabin hot tub.

This is where Pigeon Forge pulls well ahead. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park begins about half an hour away, with ridges above 2,000m, the climb to Mount LeConte, the Appalachian Trail along the crest and bears in Cades Cove. Tubing on the Little River and horse riding add variety.

Nashville's outdoors is gentler but closer to hand. There are easy trails at Radnor Lake, forest walks in the Warner Parks, greenways along the Cumberland and canoeing on the Harpeth. The Natchez Trace Parkway is good for cycling or a drive, but nothing here compares with the mountains.

Nashville has the slightly better spread of outings. Franklin, half an hour south, has a preserved Main Street and Civil War sites, and Leiper's Fork and Murfreesboro add more. The whiskey distilleries around Lynchburg make a day of a different kind, and Chattanooga is at the far edge of day-trip range.

Pigeon Forge's list is shorter but has one big prize: Asheville and the Biltmore Estate, under two hours away. Knoxville's Market Square, the crafts loop above Gatlinburg and Cherokee over Newfound Gap fill other days, and after that the choice thins out.

Pigeon Forge exists for families. Dollywood, with its rides, crafts and seasonal festivals, anchors a strip of go-karts, mini-golf, mountain coasters and dinner shows, and the cabins and water-park hotels are designed for groups. The main drawbacks are summer heat and slow traffic on the Parkway.

Nashville takes more planning. The zoo at Grassmere, the Adventure Science Center and the Lane Motor Museum are good, and the Parthenon impresses children. But Lower Broadway is loud and adult, and the attractions are spread across a city where you drive between them.

You need a car in both, but Nashville at least has a downtown you can walk. Broadway, the Ryman, the Hall of Fame, the riverfront and the Gulch are a short walk apart, and buses and ride-hailing cover the rest. The Opry, the Hermitage and neighbourhoods like 12 South are each a drive away.

Pigeon Forge has no centre to walk around, only a multi-lane Parkway, and you can walk only inside the attraction complexes. The trolley helps on busy days but is slow and does not reach the hillside cabins, and you need a car for the national park trailheads.

Nashville's shopping has more character. Broadway has boot and Western-wear shops and some of the best guitar browsing anywhere, Hatch Show Print sells its letterpress concert posters, and 12 South and East Nashville have independent boutiques and record shops.

Pigeon Forge is mostly outlets and souvenirs, with American mid-market brands along the Parkway. Its best buys are handmade: pottery and quilts near the Old Mill, and brooms, baskets and woodwork from the craft studios above Gatlinburg.

Your money goes further in Pigeon Forge. Thousands of motel rooms and cabins keep lodging reasonable outside the peak weeks, and a shared cabin is cheap per person. Breakfasts and buffets cost little, and walking in the national park is almost free. The real costs are theme park days and dinner shows.

Downtown hotels in Nashville are expensive, especially at weekends, and meals and ride-hailing add up. What helps is the free music in the Broadway honky-tonks, and staying midweek or outside downtown.

Live music is Nashville's great strength. The Grand Ole Opry and the pews of the Ryman, songwriter nights where writers play their own hits, bluegrass near the Gulch and Americana in East Nashville cover every level. The symphony plays at the Schermerhorn, and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center has opera and ballet.

Pigeon Forge puts on shows every night, but they are family revues: country and gospel, comedy, magic and dinner shows with horses or pirate ships, plus bluegrass at Dollywood. For orchestral music or serious theatre you go to Knoxville.

Neither has a spa tradition, so how restful your stay is depends on where you sleep. Nashville has hotel and day spas and a calmer stay in leafy Belmont or Hillsboro, but its downtown runs on noise and late nights.

Pigeon Forge has the edge because of its hillside cabins, with porches, fireplaces and private hot tubs facing the ridges, as long as you stay well above the neon of the Parkway.