Nashville or St. Louis?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Nashville at least has water you can swim in: Percy Priest and Old Hickory lakes on its edge have small swimming areas and pontoon boats, and are warm enough for a summer afternoon. St. Louis has nothing comparable close by, because its rivers are working waterways with strong currents, so cooling off means a pool or a long drive to an Ozark reservoir.

Both cities have their own food culture, and Nashville's is a little more distinctive and goes further. Hot chicken, meat-and-three cafeterias and breakfast biscuits are its core, and the chef-driven kitchens of East Nashville, Germantown and the Gulch take Southern cooking further than the small fine-dining scene in St. Louis does.

St. Louis answers with quirkier staples like toasted ravioli, Provel-topped pizza and gooey butter cake, the old trattorias of the Hill and the Bosnian bakeries of South Grand. Its drink is beer, from the red-brick Anheuser-Busch brewery in Soulard to the craft taprooms, where Nashville's is whiskey.

St. Louis has the broader range of sights. The Gateway Arch and its museum of westward expansion, the Old Courthouse where the Dred Scott case began, the free art and history museums in Forest Park and the mosaics of the Cathedral Basilica cover far more ground. Soulard and Lafayette Square also keep whole streets of Victorian brick.

Nashville's sightseeing is narrower and almost entirely about music: the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Ryman and the National Museum of African American Music. The Parthenon replica, the Frist and the Hermitage are the main detours, and if country music is not your interest the list runs out sooner.

Nashville offers by far the bigger night out. Lower Broadway is one continuous run of multi-storey honky-tonks with live bands on every floor, packed until the small hours, and East Nashville and Midtown offer calmer alternatives.

St. Louis spreads its evenings across separate pockets: blues taverns in Soulard, dance bars on Washington Avenue, the Grove's late-night strip and the student bars of the Loop, often with a taxi between them. It has more dancing than Nashville, but many streets go quiet early outside weekends and baseball nights.

Both sit in green, rolling country without dramatic scenery, and they are about level. Nashville's best outdoors is close to town: wildlife and easy trails at Radnor Lake, forest walks in the Warner Parks, gentle paddling on the Harpeth River and the Natchez Trace for cycling.

St. Louis has Forest Park in the city and rockier ground within reach, with river bluffs and caves at Castlewood, the boulders of Elephant Rocks and the long Katy Trail for cyclists. In winter, bald eagles gather near Alton, which Nashville cannot offer.

The two lists are similar in size and in character, with small towns and history rather than major destinations, and nearly all of them need a car. Nashville's run to the Civil War and whiskey, with the battlefields of Franklin half an hour south and the Lynchburg distillery further out.

St. Louis reaches further back in time and adds wine. Cahokia Mounds, the UNESCO-listed remains of a pre-Columbian city, is just across the river, Ste. Genevieve keeps eighteenth-century French houses, and the German towns of Hermann and Augusta make a gentle day of tastings.

St. Louis is the easier city with children. The City Museum's climbable maze in an old shoe warehouse has no equal in Nashville, the Magic House adds a large hands-on museum, and the tram pods up the Gateway Arch are a ride in themselves.

Nashville has a good zoo, the Adventure Science Center and the odd cars of the Lane Motor Museum. Its centre, though, is Lower Broadway, which is built for adult drinking, so families end up planning around downtown rather than in it.

Both are car cities, and the difference lies in the details. Nashville has the more compact core, with Broadway, the Ryman, the Hall of Fame and the Gulch a short walk apart, but only buses beyond it and heavy interstate traffic at rush hour.

St. Louis has a MetroLink light rail line linking the airport, Forest Park, the Central West End and downtown, which covers several main sights, though its neighbourhoods lie further apart. Parking is easy and the roads uncongested, so a hire car is less of a chore than in Nashville.

Nashville gives you more of a reason to shop. There are boots, hats and rhinestone shirts on Broadway, some of the best guitar browsing anywhere and the letterpress posters of Hatch Show Print, plus independent boutiques in 12 South and East Nashville.

St. Louis is more low-key, with antiques and vintage on Cherokee Street, student shops on the Loop and the stalls of Soulard Market. In both cities, big-name fashion means a trip to the suburban malls.

St. Louis is the cheaper stay. Hotels cost noticeably less even downtown, and with the zoo and the main museums free, a day of sightseeing can cost little beyond food and getting around.

Nashville's downtown hotels are expensive, especially at weekends when groups fill them, and ride-hailing across the spread-out city adds up. What saves money is that the music on Broadway has no cover charge, and staying midweek or away from downtown makes a real difference.

Nashville is one of the great music cities, and live music is the reason to go. The Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman's famous acoustics, songwriter nights in small rooms and bluegrass near the Gulch give it a depth St. Louis does not reach, and the symphony, ballet and opera are there too.

St. Louis is still strong, though in a different way: an admired symphony founded in 1880, Broadway tours at the Fabulous Fox, summer musicals outdoors at the Muny and a blues heritage running from Chuck Berry to the National Blues Museum. It suits theatre lovers and blues fans more than country fans.

Neither city has a spa tradition, and in both, wellness means hotel and day spas. The difference is the pace. Nashville's downtown runs on noise and late nights, so resting means retreating to Belmont or Hillsboro, while St. Louis is unhurried throughout, with quiet mornings in Forest Park or the Japanese garden of the Missouri Botanical Garden.