Banff or Queenstown?

Neither town has a sea, and both have snow-fed water, but Queenstown gets a little more out of its lakes. On warm days the shingle shore of Queenstown Bay and the lakefront at Frankton fill with sunbathers, people jump off the town jetty, and Lake Hayes and Moke Lake are milder in January and February.

Banff has less of this. Johnson Lake, a short drive out, is the one place that warms enough for an August afternoon swim. Lake Minnewanka and the Vermilion Lakes are for paddling rather than swimming, and the hot springs are the only warm water.

Queenstown eats better. Its lakefront and the lanes off the Mall run from pie shops and ramen to restaurants serving lamb, venison and South Island seafood, and the Gibbston Valley's pinot noir cellar doors make a long winery lunch the town's real highlight.

Banff's menus centre on meat for hungry hikers: Alberta beef, bison and elk, fondue and pub plates, with more ambitious cooking in the grand hotels. There is good craft beer and coffee, but nothing to compare with a wine region on the doorstep.

Banff has more to see between walks. The Cave and Basin is where Canada's national parks began, the Banff Springs Hotel is a baronial railway castle from the end of the nineteenth century, and the Whyte Museum and the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum cover mountain art and the Indigenous peoples of the plains.

Queenstown's sights fit into a morning: the coal-fired steamship TSS Earnslaw, still crossing the lake after more than a century, a few gold-rush stone buildings and the lakeside gardens. Its history is better told in Arrowtown, and no museum in town compares with Banff's.

Both are small towns that stay up late thanks to seasonal workers and skiers, but Queenstown has more going on. The blocks around Shotover, Camp and Searle streets pack in pubs, cocktail bars and dance bars, with lakefront terraces on summer evenings and loud winter Saturdays.

Banff's scene is a handful of pubs and a couple of dance bars along Banff Avenue, cheerful but repetitive. It thins out further in spring and autumn, and its hotel lounges are the main alternative for a quieter drink.

Both are among the world's great mountain bases, and the difference lies in how you spend the day. Banff is a town inside a national park, known for wildlife and ice. Elk graze on its lawns, bears and bighorn sheep appear by the roads, the Icefields Parkway passes glaciers, and Lake Louise and Moraine Lake are the turquoise classics.

Queenstown is about speed. Bungy began at the Kawarau Bridge, and jet boats, paragliding and gondola-served bike trails follow from it. Walkers have the Routeburn Track, and Milford Sound is the long, famous day out. Both have several ski areas within easy reach.

Queenstown has more towns within reach. Arrowtown, twenty minutes away, has miners' cottages and a restored Chinese settlement, Wanaka is a quieter lake town over the Crown Range, and the vineyards around Cromwell and Bannockburn lead on to the old goldfields at Clyde and Alexandra.

From Banff the choice is narrower. There is Canmore down the valley, a big-city day in Calgary with Heritage Park and the Stampede grounds, and modest stops at Field and Golden beyond the Continental Divide.

Banff entertains children with the landscape itself: spotting elk and bighorn sheep from the car, the Johnston Canyon boardwalk, a canoe on the Bow and tobogganing or skating in winter. It is gentle and safe, but there is nothing built specifically for children, and the zoo and science museum are in Calgary.

Queenstown has more organised fun, with the luge on Bob's Peak, kiwi at the wildlife park, jet-boat rides and an indoor pool at Frankton. Many of its signature thrills have age and weight limits, though, and in both towns the long drives to the big sights test young patience.

Banff is the easier place without a car. Roam Transit buses reach the gondola, the hot springs, Lake Minnewanka, Canmore and Lake Louise, and Parks Canada shuttles serve the busiest lakes in summer, so a car is only needed for the Icefields Parkway and remoter trailheads.

Queenstown's centre is just as walkable, and buses and a water taxi reach Frankton and Arrowtown. But the wineries, Glenorchy and Wanaka really call for driving, the single Frankton road backs up at busy times, and winter mountain roads may need chains.

Shopping is a sideline in both, built around outdoor outfitters and souvenirs. The best things to bring home differ: in Banff it is Indigenous art and Rocky Mountain landscape painting from the galleries off Banff Avenue.

In Queenstown it is merino and possum-wool knitwear and greenstone jewellery, and a summer weekend craft market sets up by the wharf.

In Banff it is the beds that cost most. Building limits inside the national park keep rooms scarce and dear, especially in summer and over Christmas, and the park pass, gondola and lift tickets add to it. Budget travellers stay in Canmore or at campgrounds and cook for themselves.

Queenstown's rooms are steep too, but the bigger bill comes from the activities people travel for, as bungy, jet boats and scenic flights quickly add up. Hostels, self-catering apartments and the Frankton supermarkets soften the cost, and the walks and trails around the lake are free.

Banff has the real cultural institution. The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity on Tunnel Mountain stages concerts, dance and performances, busiest in summer, and the autumn Mountain Film and Book Festival draws filmmakers and adventurers from around the world.

Queenstown offers covers bands in pubs, occasional touring acts at the events centre and a few days of street performance at the winter festival, with no regular theatre or concert season.

Banff was founded on its hot springs, and the open-air Upper Hot Springs pool in its 1930s bathhouse, with the grand hotels' mineral-pool spas, gives it a proper way to unwind. The town also goes quiet early outside peak summer.

Queenstown has no geothermal water. Relaxing there means a private cedar hot tub above the Shotover, a lodge spa or a slow afternoon in Arrowtown or Glenorchy, away from a centre geared to adventure bookings.