Banff or Tofino?

Neither town is a place for warm swimming, but only Tofino has real beaches. In Banff the water means glacier-fed lakes, and Johnson Lake on a hot August afternoon is as close as it gets to a beach day.

Tofino has the 16km sweep of Long Beach, the tide flats at Chesterman and the surf at Cox Bay. The shoreline shapes every day there, even though going into the Pacific means wearing a thick wetsuit.

Tofino eats better, and the difference comes from the sea: spot prawns, Dungeness crab, oysters from Clayoquot Sound, fish tacos from food trucks and a few ambitious West Coast tasting menus. Banff's cooking is built on meat, with beef, bison, elk and fondue for people coming off the trails, and the more ambitious plates are served in the grand hotels. Both towns are small, but Tofino's food has a clearer sense of place.

Banff has an afternoon of real history to offer. There is the Cave and Basin, where Canada's national parks began, the castle-like Banff Springs Hotel, and the Whyte and Buffalo Nations Luxton museums. Tofino has no museums at all. Its culture is Nuu-chah-nulth carving in the galleries and the story of the coast told at the Kwisitis Visitor Centre. Neither suits a sightseeing trip, but Banff gives a rainy day more to fill it.

Banff is the one with a night out. Seasonal workers and the winter ski crowd keep a few pubs and dance bars on and around Banff Avenue loud until late, with après-ski earlier in the evening, and all of it is within walking distance.

Tofino winds down early. It has a pub or two, a brewery taproom and some restaurant bars, but no clubs, and most visitors end the day at a beach fire before getting up early for the tide.

Both are national-park towns where the landscape is the whole point, so the real difference is mountains against ocean. Banff has the edge for range and scale: the turquoise water of Lake Louise and Moraine Lake, glaciers along the Icefields Parkway, hundreds of kilometres of trails and three ski areas, with elk grazing on the town's lawns.

Tofino swaps peaks for old-growth rainforest and the open Pacific. You get giant cedars on Meares Island, grey whales and sea otters from the boats, sea kayaking among the islands of Clayoquot Sound and winter storms breaking on the headlands.

Neither town is a base for touring other towns, but Banff has more to choose from. Canmore is twenty minutes down the valley, Calgary offers a big-city day with its museums and Heritage Park, and Field and Golden lie over the Continental Divide. From Tofino the only real outing is a half day in Ucluelet, walking its lighthouse loop. The rest of Vancouver Island is a long, winding drive away, so most days are spent on the coast.

Banff is the easier choice with children. The gondola, the Johnston Canyon boardwalk, the hot springs pool and, in winter, ski schools and skating give them more variety, and Calgary's zoo and museums are within reach if the weather turns.

Tofino's appeal is simpler: tide pools, driftwood forts and beginner surf lessons. The cold water and rainy days with little to do indoors make it more dependent on the weather, and the winding road in can be hard on young passengers.

You can manage most of a Banff stay without a car. The town is flat and walkable, Roam buses run to the gondola, Lake Minnewanka, Canmore and Lake Louise, and park shuttles serve the busiest lakes in summer. Only the Icefields Parkway and Yoho really call for your own wheels.

In Tofino the village is just a few blocks, while the beaches and resorts are strung out along the highway. A cycle path toward the park helps in dry weather, but most visitors bring a car, and the best outings go by water taxi or floatplane.

Banff has more to browse. There are outdoor outfitters for anyone who forgot their boots, Canadian clothing labels, fudge shops, and galleries selling Indigenous art and Rocky Mountain painting. Tofino's best buys are Nuu-chah-nulth carving, silver jewellery and prints, along with surf shops and a few beach-style boutiques. For anything more you have to go to the island's east coast. In both towns shopping fills a wet afternoon rather than a trip.

Both towns are expensive for the same basic reason: there are too few rooms. In Banff, building is restricted inside the national park. In Tofino the cause is remoteness, which also raises the cost of groceries brought in over the mountains and of boat tours.

Where you can save differs. In Banff the extras add up (park pass, gondola, lift passes), and budget travellers stay in Canmore and come in for the day, with spring and late autumn cheaper. In Tofino the campgrounds are the cheaper way in, and the lower room rates fall in the stormy months from November to March.

Banff has a genuine arts institution in the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity on Tunnel Mountain. It puts on concerts and dance, with the busiest programme in summer, and the town also hosts the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival every autumn. Tofino has no theatre, concert hall or regular venue, only the occasional local band and a few small summer festivals. In Banff an evening at a performance is possible if you check the programme first, while in Tofino it is not worth planning for.

Both towns are good places to slow down, but the hot springs are very different. Banff's Upper Hot Springs is a 1930s pool on Sulphur Mountain, a short trip from town and at its best after skiing with snow falling, though it gets crowded. The grand hotels add spas with mineral pools.

Tofino's Hot Springs Cove takes a full day by boat or floatplane and ends in rock pools spilling into the sea. Day to day, rest there means a private hot tub, seaweed and cedar spa treatments or a yoga class, at a pace set by the tides.