New York or Chicago?

For beaches the two are level, and in both a swim is a summer afternoon off rather than a reason to go. Chicago's are freshwater lake beaches, more than twenty of them, and Oak Street Beach sits right under the Gold Coast towers, so you can get to one in minutes from the centre.

New York's are true Atlantic beaches with surf, mostly at the far end of the subway: Coney Island with its boardwalk and rides, the longer, emptier Rockaways, and Jones Beach about an hour out. They are more of an outing, and summer weekends there get packed.

Both are serious food cities, but New York has the greater range. In Chicago the strengths are its own classics, deep-dish and tavern-cut pizza, Italian beef and the dressed hot dog, alongside the West Loop's restaurant row and excellent Mexican cooking in Pilsen and Little Village.

New York goes further because almost every cuisine is cooked by its own community, from Flushing's Fujianese kitchens to Tibetan food in Jackson Heights and Caribbean in Crown Heights. On top of that come the slice, the bagel, the deli pastrami and halal carts on every corner, so cheap street food is never far away.

Chicago is the sharper choice for architecture. The skyscraper grew up here, and a day of looking at buildings hangs together well: the river cruise past the Loop's towers, the Rookery's light court and Mies van der Rohe's glass, then Wright's houses in Hyde Park and Oak Park. The Art Institute's Impressionists are world class, but nothing in the city is older than the 19th century.

New York has more to see overall. The Met, MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Frick and the Cloisters could fill a week, and the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Brooklyn Bridge are reasons to come in themselves. Little of its heritage is older than the 19th century, but the cast-iron fronts of SoHo and the Lower East Side tenements tell the city's immigrant story well.

Chicago stays out later than most American cities. Many bars pour until 4am, Wicker Park and Logan Square have cocktail and dive bars, and the dance nights go back to the city's history as a birthplace of house music. In winter the evening moves indoors to old corner taverns.

New York has more of everything, and it keeps going longer. The trains run all night, the East Village and Lower East Side are packed with bars, and at weekends the warehouse clubs of Bushwick and Williamsburg go on past dawn. A night out in Chicago usually stays in one neighbourhood and winds down at closing time. In New York you can cross into another borough at 3am and still find people just arriving.

Neither is an outdoors destination, though New York has a little more within reach. Chicago's best outdoor day is the 29km lakefront path, and its surroundings are flat. Indiana Dunes and the canyons at Starved Rock are the nearest real country, each an hour or more away.

New York's parks are larger landscapes, Central Park and Prospect Park among them. Above all, a train up the Hudson reaches steep, rocky climbs at Breakneck Ridge in about ninety minutes, which Chicago cannot offer.

New York is the better base for days out. Philadelphia's colonial old town is an easy train ride, Princeton and New Haven bring Ivy League campuses, and the Hudson Valley adds Gilded Age estates, Dia Beacon and the sculpture park at Storm King.

From Chicago the choice is thinner. Milwaukee's lakefront museum and breweries make a good train trip, and Oak Park rewards anyone who loves Wright, but most of the rest needs a car and the prairie in between is flat and empty.

Chicago is the more comfortable city with children. The Museum of Science and Industry, with its coal mine and U-boat, can take up a whole day, the Museum Campus puts dinosaurs, belugas and stars within a short walk of one another, and Lincoln Park Zoo is free.

New York has the bigger single attractions, the Natural History Museum's dinosaurs and the Bronx Zoo among them, and the Staten Island Ferry is a free treat. Getting around is the catch: stairs-only subway stations, cramped hotel rooms and Midtown crowds tire small children quickly.

You need a car in neither city, but New York is the easier one to get around. Its subway runs all night across four boroughs, and Manhattan's grid lets you walk from one district to the next, though the express lines and weekend reroutes take some learning.

Chicago's L runs straight from both airports, which beats New York's awkward airport links, and the Loop's main sights are an easy flat walk apart. Beyond the centre the spoke-shaped lines mean slow buses between neighbourhoods, and January wind makes walking hard work.

New York is one of the world's great shopping cities, and Chicago is a good American one. Chicago has the Magnificent Mile's flagships, Oak Street's labels and the old Marshall Field's building under its Tiffany ceiling, with indie shops in Wicker Park and Andersonville.

New York covers far more ground: Bergdorf Goodman and Madison Avenue at the top, SoHo and Nolita for fashion, Greenpoint for vintage, plus specialist shops for rare books, cameras and sneakers, and weekend flea markets of a kind Chicago largely lacks.

Neither is cheap, but Chicago costs noticeably less. Its downtown hotels are dear in summer and convention weeks, and taxes and tips add up, yet a stay outside the Loop and meals at taquerias and pizza places keep costs manageable.

New York is among the most expensive cities anywhere, with small, costly rooms all year and high prices for observation decks, museums and theatre. The free ferry, parks and High Line help, and staying in Brooklyn, Queens or New Jersey brings room prices down.

Chicago would be a strong pick for a performance trip on its own: a world-class symphony, the Lyric Opera, Steppenwolf and the storefront theatres, improv at Second City and electric blues in its own clubs.

New York is better still. Broadway sets the standard for musicals and plays in English, Lincoln Center brings together the Met Opera, the Philharmonic and City Ballet, and Carnegie Hall draws the world's leading orchestras. Add Village jazz basements, Harlem gospel and Brooklyn's music venues, and every night offers more choice than you can use.

Neither city is restful, and both surprise people with their old bathhouses. New York has a little more of them: its East Village Russian and Turkish baths, the banyas at Brighton Beach and Korean spas in Queens, against Chicago's single Wicker Park bathhouse and a suburban jjimjilbang.

For calm, Chicago has early walks by the lake and the warm Garfield Park and Lincoln Park conservatories in winter, while New Yorkers go to the Cloisters' gardens, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden or out on the harbour ferry.