Nashville or Washington DC?

Neither city works for a beach trip. Nashville's reservoir lakes, Percy Priest and Old Hickory, are on the edge of town and are good for a summer afternoon of swimming or pontoon boating. Washington's nearest sand is the small, brackish Chesapeake beaches around Annapolis, about an hour away, and the Atlantic resorts are a weekend away rather than an afternoon out. So Nashville's water is closer to hand, and in Washington it takes a proper outing.

Both cities eat well, but in different ways. Nashville has a cuisine of its own: hot chicken, meat-and-three cafeterias, barbecue and biscuits. Around that core there are chef-led kitchens in East Nashville and the Gulch, and Kurdish, Mexican and Vietnamese places along Nolensville Pike.

Washington has less local identity and a wider range: Ethiopian cooking around Shaw and U Street, pupusas in Columbia Heights, Chesapeake crab and oysters in season, and serious tasting menus. Go to Nashville for one strong tradition and to Washington for variety. In both cities downtown is the weakest area, with bar food on Broadway and business steakhouses near Washington's offices.

Washington is far ahead here. The Smithsonian museums, the National Gallery, the Capitol, the Library of Congress and the memorials along the Reflecting Pool can easily fill a week, and nearly all of them are free.

Nashville's sights are fewer and mostly about music: the Country Music Hall of Fame, the National Museum of African American Music and a daytime tour of the Ryman. The Parthenon replica, the Frist and the Hermitage add some variety, but two or three days covers them, and the mostly modern city has little to match the old streets of Georgetown or Capitol Hill.

Nashville gives the bigger night out, and a very particular one. Lower Broadway's multi-storey honky-tonks have a band on every floor, and at weekends the strip runs as one long party into the small hours. East Nashville's dive bars and cocktail lounges are the quieter alternative.

In Washington the night out is more spread out and depends more on the day of the week. There are cocktail bars and late dance spots on 14th Street and U Street, rowdier bars in Adams Morgan and the LGBTQ+ scene around Dupont Circle, but early in the week it is mostly after-work drinks. Washington has more DJs and clubs, while Nashville has far more live bands in its bars.

Washington has better outdoors close at hand. Rock Creek Park and the C&O Canal towpath give long walks and bike rides from the centre. Great Falls, half an hour upriver, adds cliff-top paths and whitewater, and Shenandoah's ridges are within reach for a day.

Nashville's countryside is gentler. Radnor Lake, the Warner Parks, the Cumberland greenways and easy paddling on the Harpeth make pleasant outings, and the Natchez Trace Parkway suits cycling and slow drives. It is a nice setting rather than a reason to go.

The country around Washington offers far more. Old Town Alexandria and Mount Vernon are close by, and Baltimore is under an hour by train. Gettysburg, Antietam and Harpers Ferry are all within a couple of hours, and Philadelphia's Independence Hall makes a long but worthwhile day by fast train.

Nashville's list is shorter and on a smaller scale: Franklin's Main Street and Civil War houses half an hour south, the village of Leiper's Fork, and the whiskey distilleries around Lynchburg. Almost all of it needs a car, whereas several of Washington's best trips can be made by rail.

Washington is the easier city with children. The dinosaur halls at Natural History, the rockets at Air and Space and the National Zoo cost nothing, the Mall gives them space to run, and every Metro station has a lift for buggies. The main drawback is the long, exposed walks between sights in summer.

Nashville has good attractions of its own in the zoo at Grassmere, the Adventure Science Center and the Lane Motor Museum. They are spread out and reached by car, though, and the heart of the city, Lower Broadway, is designed for adults drinking late.

Washington is much easier to get around without a car. The Metro runs to Arlington, Alexandria and the airport, the flat grid is good for walking, and bike-share links the monuments. Georgetown, with no station of its own, is the main awkward spot.

Nashville's walkable core is small: Broadway, the Ryman, the Hall of Fame and the Gulch. Beyond it there are only buses. The Opry, the Hermitage, East Nashville and 12 South each mean a ride-hail or a hire car, and the interstates are heavy with traffic at rush hour.

Washington has the wider range of shops, though neither city is a shopping destination. Georgetown's M Street and Wisconsin Avenue mix chains, boutiques and antique shops, CityCenterDC has the luxury labels, and Eastern Market adds weekend craft stalls.

Nashville is strong in one niche: boots, hats and rhinestone shirts on Broadway, guitar shops, and the letterpress concert posters of Hatch Show Print. For Western wear or an instrument it beats Washington, but outside that niche the choice is thinner, with 12 South's boutiques the main alternative.

Both cities are expensive, with costly central hotels, big-city restaurant bills and tips on top. Where you save is different. In Nashville the music is free, since the Broadway honky-tonks charge no cover, while in Washington the sightseeing is free, from the Smithsonian to the Capitol tours. Washington's Metro also makes it practical to stay out in Arlington, whereas staying outside downtown Nashville means paying for more ride-hailing.

Nashville is the city for live music. The Grand Ole Opry, the Ryman's famous acoustics, bands on Broadway from late morning and songwriter nights in small rooms make music the point of a trip. The symphony at the Schermerhorn and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center cover classical music, ballet and opera.

Washington's strength is theatre: Arena Stage, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Ford's Theatre and the Folger, along with the National Symphony and the opera. U Street's restored theatres and summer evenings at Wolf Trap bring good concerts, but Nashville's music scene goes much deeper.

Neither city is a place to rest, and neither has a spa tradition beyond hotel and day spas. In Washington, the quiet moments come from its open spaces: the Tidal Basin early in the morning, the gardens of Dumbarton Oaks and the National Arboretum. In Nashville, a calmer stay means basing yourself in the leafy streets of Belmont or Hillsboro, well away from the noise of Broadway.