Banff or Whitefish?

Neither town is a beach destination, but Whitefish at least has proper swimming. City Beach sits at the edge of town with sand, a dock and paddleboards, and Flathead Lake, about forty minutes south, has clear water and pebbly state park shores that are warm enough on calm days from mid-July to late August.

Banff's glacier-fed lakes are for paddling and admiring. Shallow Johnson Lake is the one place locals brave on hot August afternoons, and the warm water here is in the hot springs.

The two eat in much the same way: game, beef and comfort food for people back from the trails, a few more ambitious dining rooms and decent craft beer.

The differences are in the detail. Banff's best cooking is in its grand hotels, built on Rocky Mountain and prairie produce. Whitefish adds trout, wood-fired pizza, a distilling tradition and, in late summer, huckleberries in everything from pie to cocktails.

Banff has a real story to tell. Cave and Basin, where Canada's national parks began, the baronial Banff Springs Hotel and three museums covering mountain art, Victorian natural history and the Plains peoples fill a satisfying day.

Whitefish offers much less. The timber-framed Great Northern depot with its small railway and logging museum, plus some early twentieth-century frontage downtown, takes an hour at most.

Banff stays up later. Its young seasonal workers and the winter ski crowd keep a few pubs and a couple of dance bars on Banff Avenue loud into the night, and there are hotel lounges for a quieter drink.

Whitefish has the more characterful rooms, wooden saloons with pool tables and brewery taprooms where ranchers mix with skiers. There is nowhere to dance, though, and most evenings end well before Banff's do.

Both are outstanding mountain bases, and the difference lies in distance and season. In Banff the park is the town: Cascade Mountain closes the view down Banff Avenue, elk graze on the lawns, and Lake Louise, Moraine Lake and the Icefields Parkway are within reach. Three ski areas and the golden autumn larches make every season worthwhile.

From Whitefish, Glacier National Park is about forty minutes away, and the Highline Trail, Grinnell Glacier and the Going-to-the-Sun Road offer some of the finest hiking on the continent. Its high country is reliably open only from July to September, though, so the rest of the year relies on Big Mountain's skiing, the Whitefish Trail and fly fishing.

Neither works as a base for touring towns, and both mostly send you back into the mountains. From Banff the main alternative is a big-city day in Calgary for its museums, Heritage Park and the Stampede grounds, with Canmore just down the valley. Whitefish offers smaller outings: the Conrad Mansion in Kalispell, Bigfork's galleries and the cherry orchards on Flathead Lake, and the mission church at St Ignatius.

Banff keeps children busy with less effort. Wildlife from the car, the gondola, the Johnston Canyon boardwalk, a canoe on the Bow and a hot-spring soak are all close to town, and winter adds ski schools, tobogganing and skating.

Whitefish has a few strong draws, including the summer zip line and alpine slide on Big Mountain and the calm water at City Beach. Children who don't take to hiking or paddling will run out of things to do sooner, though, and the drives into Glacier are long for little ones.

Banff is far easier without a car. The compact, flat town is walkable, and Roam Transit buses run to the gondola, the hot springs, Lake Minnewanka, Canmore and Lake Louise, with summer shuttles to the busiest lakes.

Whitefish has one unusual advantage: the long-distance train stops at the downtown depot. There is also a free ski-season shuttle to the mountain. Beyond the few central blocks, though, a hire car is close to essential for Glacier, Flathead Lake and the trailheads.

Each offers an afternoon on one main street rather than a reason to travel, and both have outdoor outfitters for anyone who forgot their boots. Banff Avenue leans towards Canadian clothing labels, fudge shops and Indigenous art, while Central Avenue has western-wear and boot shops, huckleberry jam and wildlife painting, with bigger stores nearby in Kalispell.

Both are expensive, but Banff is harder on the wallet. Building limits inside the national park keep rooms scarce, and the gondola, tours, lift passes and park pass come on top of resort-priced meals.

Whitefish costs less overall, especially if you stay in Kalispell or Columbia Falls, though a hire car is part of almost every visit. In both places spring and autumn are easier, and the trails and lakes cost little once you are inside the park.

Banff has a real institution in the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, whose theatres put on concerts and dance through a busy summer, and each autumn the Mountain Film and Book Festival draws adventurers and filmmakers from around the world.

Whitefish has a community arts centre, a professional summer theatre company and the valley symphony's summer festival in Kalispell, plus free outdoor concerts on summer evenings. That is a fair amount for its size, but there is less of it overall.

Banff grew up as a spa town, and you can still feel it. The 1930s bathhouse of the Upper Hot Springs on Sulphur Mountain is the classic end to a ski day, best with snow coming down. Because that is one public pool and it fills up, the better choice for a long, unhurried afternoon is often one of the grand hotels, where the spas have mineral pools beside the treatment rooms. Outside the peak summer weeks the town itself goes quiet early.

Whitefish has no thermal water within easy reach, so relaxing there is drier and simpler: a massage at one of the lodges or resorts by the lake or on Big Mountain, or a class at a yoga studio in town. Rest is something you fit between hikes and paddles, not the reason for the trip.