Alaska or Canadian Rockies?

Neither region is a swimming destination, but the Rockies at least give you a real swim. Lake Annette and Lake Edith near Jasper have sandy shores, and Lake Windermere in the Columbia Valley gets warm enough for a proper beach afternoon.

Alaska's long coastline is rock, silt and mudflat, with sea that stays cold all summer. Its shores are for beachcombing and spotting sea otters, and the only real swim most visitors get is in a hotel pool.

Alaska eats better, because of the sea. Wild salmon, halibut, Kachemak Bay oysters and king crab fresh from harbourside shacks in Homer, Seward and Sitka are a genuine reason to go, and Anchorage has the widest choice.

The Rockies offer resort dining built on meat, with Alberta beef, bison and elk in Banff steakhouses and lodge dining rooms, plus a more relaxed bakery and brewery scene in Canmore. Both get thin quickly outside the main towns.

Alaska has a little more to see, and it is more varied. The Anchorage Museum and the Alaska Native Heritage Center are proper collections, and Sitka adds Russian onion domes and totem-lined trails, with Skagway's gold rush street on top. Each is a short visit, though, and the sights are spread across a huge state.

The Rockies tell one story, that of the parks and the railway. You can see it at Cave and Basin, the Whyte Museum and the grand Banff Springs and Chateau Lake Louise hotels, which are easy to fit around a day of hiking.

Banff gives the Rockies a small but real late scene. Seasonal ski and hotel workers fill pubs and a couple of dance clubs on Banff Avenue, especially in winter.

Alaska's evenings are about character more than late hours. Sawdust-floored frontier saloons in Skagway, Talkeetna and Fairbanks are worth a drink, but almost everyone turns in early before a morning boat or flight.

Both are world-class, and the difference is in kind. Alaska is wilder and more maritime, with tidewater glaciers calving into fjords, whales and puffins off the Kenai Peninsula, bears at Katmai and the rainforests of the Inside Passage, much of it reachable only by boat or floatplane.

The Rockies are high mountain country you can reach on foot, with turquoise lakes, the Columbia Icefield beside the Parkway and trails from lakeside strolls to the larch-lined alpine passes of Yoho. In winter Alaska offers the aurora and dog sledding, and the Rockies offer some of North America's best skiing.

Alaska's day trips are to small harbour and frontier towns, and most of them are really gateways to glaciers and wildlife. From Anchorage the drive along Turnagain Arm reaches Girdwood and Seward, Talkeetna lies to the north, and a boat from Juneau reaches Skagway's gold rush streets.

The Rockies have a similar handful of half-days, to the railway village of Field or the hot-spring towns of the Columbia Valley. They also have Calgary, a real city with museums about an hour and a half from Banff. In both regions, though, the best days out still head into the landscape.

The Rockies are much easier with children. Gondolas up Sulphur Mountain, canoeing on Lake Louise, hot-spring pools and short walks like the Johnston Canyon catwalks are all close to safe, compact towns, and campgrounds are made for family summers.

Alaska thrills older children with whales, moose, gold panning and the Alaska Railroad, but it asks more of them. Boat and bus tours last hours, July can be cool and wet, and the bright nights upset sleep, so a cruise or an Anchorage-and-Kenai road trip works best with young children.

In Alaska, the way you travel decides the whole trip. The Inside Passage towns have no road link and can be reached only by ship or plane. Paved highway and the summer railway join Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula, Denali and Fairbanks, but the drives are long, and the best glaciers and wildlife often need a boat or small plane as well.

The Rockies are far simpler. Fly into Calgary, follow the Trans-Canada and the Icefields Parkway, and use local buses and park shuttles for Banff, Canmore and the busiest lakes. The main drawbacks are summer car parks that fill early and winter roads that need careful driving.

Alaska's shopping is worth doing for one thing: Native-made work such as baskets, carvings, qiviut knitwear and ulu knives. Buy it in Anchorage rather than along the cruise-port jewellery strips, which look the same from town to town.

In the Rockies the shopping is on Banff Avenue, which is good for a warm jacket, landscape paintings or a Canadian gift, and Canmore adds a few independent galleries. Outdoor gear is the practical buy in both regions, and neither is worth setting aside a day for.

Both are expensive in the summer season, and Alaska costs a little more. Food and fuel are shipped in, and the big experiences there, such as flightseeing and floatplanes to the bears, are all paid tours.

The Rockies leave more ways to save. Canmore and Golden make cheaper bases than Banff or Jasper, and the big sights are trails and lakes you reach by car. In both regions, camping and self-catering are what keep costs in check.

Most of the live performance a visitor sees in Alaska is heritage: Native drumming and dance in Anchorage, Sitka and Ketchikan, gold rush revues in Skagway, and Sitka's chamber music festival in June.

The Rockies concentrate theirs in one place, the Banff Centre. Its summer concerts, opera and dance and its autumn Mountain Film and Book Festival give a small town real cultural weight. For a full season of theatre or concerts, you need a city, Anchorage in Alaska or Calgary near the Rockies.

The Rockies are much better for unwinding. Hot springs at Banff Upper, Radium, Miette and Fairmont are part of an ordinary evening, and the railway hotels and a Kananaskis Nordic spa add pampering.

Alaska's soaks take more effort. Chena is an hour beyond Fairbanks and Tenakee Springs is remote, though the Girdwood spa is close to Anchorage. Its real quiet is found in remote cabins on Kachemak Bay or in the Denali backcountry, away from the usual crowded tour days.