New York or Las Vegas?

Las Vegas has no beach to speak of. The closest open water is Lake Mead's gravel shore at Boulder Beach in a shadeless desert basin, so swimming really means the wave pools and lazy rivers of the Strip resorts.

New York, by contrast, has real Atlantic sand at the end of the subway lines, from the boardwalk and rides at Coney Island to the longer, surf-friendly Rockaways, with Jones Beach a train ride further. The season is short and summer weekends are packed, but a day by the ocean is genuinely possible.

Both cities can feed you very well at the top end, but in Las Vegas that means celebrity-chef outposts, steakhouses and buffets inside the resorts. The most rewarding meals are out on Spring Mountain Road, with its long run of Sichuan, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese kitchens, and in the Mexican places of the suburbs.

New York goes much further, because its food is cooked by the communities it came from: Fujianese in Flushing, Tibetan in Jackson Heights, Polish in Greenpoint, Italian on Arthur Avenue. It also has dishes of its own, from slices and bagels to deli pastrami, plus greenmarkets and a serious coffee scene, none of which Las Vegas really offers.

The cultural gap here is wide. Las Vegas offers the Strip as theatre, with replica canals, dancing fountains and the Fremont Street canopy, plus two good museums downtown on neon signs and the mob. A sightseer can cover it in a day or two.

New York could fill weeks. The Met, MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Frick and the Natural History Museum would each anchor a trip elsewhere, and the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Grand Central and the brownstone streets of Brooklyn add a century and a half of urban history to read on foot.

Both cities stay up all night, but they do it differently. Las Vegas concentrates its nights on the Strip: superclubs with famous DJ residencies, pool dayclubs, open-container walking and table service, with Fremont Street and the arts district as the cheaper, looser alternative. It is ideal for a group celebration.

New York edges ahead on range. Its nights are spread across neighbourhoods, from East Village dives and West Village wine bars to Midtown rooftops, historic gay bars near Stonewall and the warehouse dance floors of Bushwick and Williamsburg. That gives you the underground club culture Las Vegas lacks.

Here Las Vegas comes out ahead. Red Rock Canyon's sandstone cliffs are half an hour away, Valley of Fire's flame-coloured rock and petroglyphs about an hour, and Mount Charleston offers pine forest and winter snow. The catches are that you need a car, and summer heat rules out desert hiking for much of the day.

New York's outdoors is mostly parkland and waterfront: Central and Prospect Parks, the High Line, birdwatching at Jamaica Bay and summer kayaking on the Hudson. Wilder ground, such as Breakneck Ridge in the Hudson Highlands, is a train ride away and at its best in October.

Las Vegas really offers one day out by road, Hoover Dam with neighbouring Boulder City. After that come long tours to the Grand Canyon, Zion or Death Valley, which are about landscape rather than towns.

New York has far more choice by train. Philadelphia's Independence Hall, the Princeton campus and Yale in New Haven each make an easy day. The Hudson Valley adds Gilded Age estates, Dia Beacon and the sculpture fields of Storm King.

New York is much better with children. The dinosaur halls of the Natural History Museum, the Bronx Zoo, the Intrepid carrier on the Hudson and Central Park's carousel and playgrounds give days of things to do, and the free Staten Island Ferry doubles as a harbour cruise. The hard parts are stairs-only subway stations and small hotel rooms.

Las Vegas can manage a day or two with its shark aquarium, indoor rides and the Discovery Children's Museum. Still, casino floors stand between you and almost everything, the adult side of the Strip is hard to avoid, and summer heat makes walking tough, so most families pass through on the way to the parks.

New York is far easier to get around without a car. Manhattan's grid is walkable, and the subway runs all night to four boroughs, helped by ferries and bike-share docks. The main irritations are express lines, weekend reroutes and the airport journey.

In Las Vegas the Strip looks walkable on a map, but the giant resorts, footbridges and casino detours stretch every walk, and summer heat makes it punishing. The monorail and buses help a little. Most visitors use ride-hailing, and the desert sights need a hire car.

Las Vegas shopping is a matter of resort malls: the Forum Shops, the Venetian's canal arcade and Fashion Show cover the big fashion and jewellery names, with late hours and two outlet centres for bargains. There is almost nothing local or independent.

New York has all of that and much more besides. There are flagships on Fifth Avenue, quiet luxury on Madison, and historic department stores such as Bergdorf Goodman and Macy's. Then come SoHo's design brands, Nolita boutiques, vintage and records in Williamsburg, rare books, and weekend flea and makers' markets that a mall city cannot match.

Neither city is cheap, but Las Vegas is kinder to your wallet if you time the trip well. Sunday-to-Thursday rooms can be generous for the money, downtown costs less again, and the Chinatown restaurants are good value. Weekends, conventions, resort fees and Strip drinks and shows quickly undo that.

New York is expensive all year, with small Manhattan rooms, tax and tip on every meal, and steep theatre and observation-deck tickets. The savings come from staying in Brooklyn or Queens, eating slices and food-cart meals, and using free things such as the parks, the High Line and the ferry.

Las Vegas is a strong stage town in its own right, with permanent theatres built for water acrobatics, magicians and comedians, and pop and country stars on long residencies you may not catch on tour. The formal arts there are limited to touring productions and the Philharmonic at the Smith Center.

New York is ahead because it has both the spectacle and the serious side. Broadway and Off-Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet and Carnegie Hall sit alongside a century of jazz in the Village and Harlem, gospel on Sunday mornings and free Shakespeare in the parks in summer.

Neither city is built for rest, and they come out roughly level. Las Vegas relies on huge resort spas with thermal circuits and salt rooms, best booked on a quiet weekday morning at a non-gaming hotel, away from the noise of the casinos.

New York's offer is older and more local: an East Village Russian and Turkish bathhouse dating from the 1800s, banyas in Brighton Beach and Korean jjimjilbang spas in Queens. For quiet, it adds gardens such as the Cloisters and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.