Banff or Lake Placid?

Neither town is a beach destination, but Lake Placid gives a swimmer much more. Mirror Lake has a lifeguarded beach in the middle of the village, the Saranac chain and the swimming holes on the Ausable add more choice, and in midsummer the shallower lakes reach about 22°C.

In Banff the glacier-fed lakes stay cold even in July, and Johnson Lake on a hot August afternoon is about the only place for a proper swim. For warm water there you go to the hot springs.

Both towns feed hungry hikers and skiers rather than food lovers. Banff has a little more range: Alberta beef, bison and elk, fondue, and dining rooms in the grand hotels that cook with Rocky Mountain and prairie produce.

Lake Placid's Main Street has brewpubs, diners, pizza and burgers, with the lakeside lodges for a better dinner with a view and maple syrup as the main local flavour. Some of its kitchens cut back in the shoulder seasons.

You can see either town's sights in about a day. The difference is the story they tell. Banff's sights cover the birth of Canada's national parks and the mountain world: the cave spring at Cave and Basin, the castle-like Banff Springs Hotel, the Whyte Museum's climbing history and the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum on the peoples of the plains.

Lake Placid's heritage is Olympic. There is the 'Miracle on Ice' rink with its small museum, the ski jumps above town and the old speed skating oval, and John Brown's Farm adds a serious chapter of American abolitionist history.

Banff has a real night out and Lake Placid does not. Young seasonal workers and the ski crowd keep a few pubs and a couple of dance bars on and around Banff Avenue loud until late, all a short walk apart. It gets repetitive, though, and quieter in spring and autumn.

In Lake Placid an evening means dinner and a beer or two at a Main Street brewpub or a lakeside hotel bar. There are no clubs and little after midnight, apart from busy ski weekends and big events.

Both are excellent mountain bases, but Banff is on a grander scale. The town sits inside a national park, with Cascade Mountain at the end of the main street, elk on the lawns and bighorn sheep and bears beside the roads. Lake Louise, Moraine Lake and the glaciers of the Icefields Parkway are within reach, and there are three ski areas to choose from.

The Adirondack High Peaks around Lake Placid are lower, forested summits. Mount Marcy is the big climb, and Cascade and Mount Jo are good half-day hikes. The water is the real strength here: canoeing through the Saranac Lakes and the St. Regis area and fly fishing on the Ausable. Whiteface offers serious skiing, but spring brings mud and blackflies.

Lake Placid has more places worth driving to. Saranac Lake, a former tuberculosis cure town, and the Wild Center in Tupper Lake are close by. Longer days out reach Fort Ticonderoga, Burlington by car ferry across Lake Champlain, or Montreal over the border.

From Banff, nearly every outing heads into the mountains. For towns there is Canmore down the valley, a big-city day in Calgary with Heritage Park and the Stampede grounds, and smaller stops at Field and Golden across the Continental Divide.

Both are small, safe towns where the outdoors keeps children busy, and neither has a zoo or an aquarium. Banff relies on its landscape: spotting wildlife from the car, the gondola up Sulphur Mountain, the boardwalk in Johnston Canyon and a family soak in the hot springs.

Lake Placid has more built attractions. Children can skate on the Olympic rinks, ride up the ski jump tower, take a bobsled ride or use the toboggan chute onto the frozen lake, and a long-running Christmas theme park is about 20 minutes away.

Both centres are easy to walk, but Banff makes a stay without a car far more practical. Roam Transit buses go to the gondola, the hot springs, Lake Minnewanka, Canmore and Lake Louise, and in summer Parks Canada shuttles serve the busiest lakes. You only really need your own wheels for the Icefields Parkway and Yoho.

In Lake Placid the walkable part ends at Main Street and Mirror Lake. You need a car for Whiteface, the trailheads and the other towns, buses are few, and for much of the year the mountain roads mean winter driving.

Shopping is a sideline in both towns, and Banff has slightly more to offer. Banff Avenue has plenty of outdoor outfitters and Canadian clothing labels, and its galleries of Indigenous art and Rocky Mountain painting sell the best things to take home. Lake Placid's single stretch of Main Street is smaller, with ski and fly-fishing shops, Olympic souvenirs and rustic Adirondack décor such as balsam pillows.

Neither town is cheap, but Lake Placid is easier on a tight budget. Older motels at the edge of the village and self-catering cabins cut costs a good deal, although a rental car is hard to do without.

Building is restricted inside Banff's national park, so rooms are scarce and steep in summer and over Christmas. The gondola, tours, lift passes and park pass add up on top of that. Budget travellers there often stay in Canmore or camp.

Banff has the richer programme, thanks to the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity on Tunnel Mountain. Its theatres put on concerts, dance and performance, with the busiest season in summer, and every autumn the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival brings in adventurers and filmmakers.

Lake Placid's main offering is the Lake Placid Sinfonietta's summer season, including free concerts at the bandshell by Mirror Lake, plus occasional shows at the village arts centre. Outside summer there is little to go to.

Banff began as a hot-springs resort, and that gives it the edge. The open-air mineral pool at the Upper Hot Springs looks across the valley and is a fine end to a ski day, though it is a single pool that gets crowded. The grand hotels have large spas with their own mineral pools.

Lake Placid has no hot springs, only massage, saunas and hot tubs at the bigger lodges. Its calm comes from the setting instead: a walk around Mirror Lake, a porch over still water, a fire on a winter evening.