Bar Harbor or Halifax?

Neither place is a beach destination, and in both the most pleasant swimming is in fresh water. Bar Harbor has one sea beach worth the name, Sand Beach in Acadia, a crushed-shell cove where the water allows little more than a quick dip. People go to Echo Lake on the island's western side instead.

Halifax has more coast to choose from, with Crystal Crescent's pale sand, Rainbow Haven and the long arc of Martinique Beach within an hour's drive, and surf at Lawrencetown. Its sea is a few degrees less cold in late summer, and lakes such as Chocolate Lake are inside the city itself.

Both menus are built on lobster, chowder and haddock, but Halifax takes it further. It adds Nova Scotia oysters, Digby scallops, the late-night donair and a Saturday farmers' market with roots in the 1750s. A strong craft brewing scene and Annapolis Valley wines and ciders give it more variety.

Bar Harbor's pleasures are simpler and seasonal: lobster boiled outdoors and eaten at picnic tables, wild blueberry pie, and popovers at Jordan Pond House. The choice is narrow, summer brings queues and many kitchens close from late autumn.

Halifax has far more to fill the days. Its history as a naval port and immigration gateway runs through the Citadel with its noon gun, the Maritime Museum's Titanic and Halifax Explosion galleries, and Pier 21. Add the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia with Maud Lewis's painted house, and you have a solid two days.

Bar Harbor offers about a morning's worth. There is the Abbe Museum on the Wabanaki, the Gilded Age cottages along the Shore Path, the Tiffany windows at St Saviour's and the granite bridges of the carriage roads. It is a pleasant extra, not a reason to visit.

Of the two, only Halifax offers a real night out. University students keep the pubs, taprooms and patios around Argyle Street and the waterfront busy at weekends, and the North End has smaller cocktail and wine bars, though there are few clubs.

In Bar Harbor a summer evening means a beer in a taproom or harbour-view bar near Main Street, perhaps with a band, and the town is quiet before midnight. Out of season it rarely goes beyond a drink with dinner.

This is Bar Harbor's great advantage. Acadia rises from the edge of town, with pink-granite summits such as Cadillac Mountain, cliff climbs like the Beehive, Ocean Path along the surf and the carriage roads for cycling, all without a long drive.

Halifax has fine rocky coast, lakes and granite barrens, with Point Pleasant Park and McNabs Island close by and Peggy's Cove under an hour away. There are no real hills, though, and the best places are scattered, so it suits kayaking, surfing and coastal walks better than mountain hiking.

Halifax has much better day trips. Lunenburg's UNESCO-listed painted harbourfront, Mahone Bay, Chester and Peggy's Cove make a classic South Shore day out, and the Annapolis Valley has Wolfville's wineries and Grand Pré.

From Bar Harbor most outings stay on Mount Desert Island, among the harbour villages or on the small ferries to the Cranberry Isles. Castine, Blue Hill, Stonington and Camden are attractive, but none is a major sight. Both bases need a car for most of these.

Both are small, safe places where the outdoors does most of the entertaining, and neither has a theme park. Where they differ is the kind of fun on offer. Bar Harbor has tide pools, the sandbar walk to Bar Island, bikes on the flat carriage roads and junior ranger activities, but little for a rainy day.

Halifax copes better when the weather turns, with the hands-on Discovery Centre, the Maritime Museum and the Citadel's kilted soldiers. The ferry to Dartmouth is an easy treat.

In both, the centre is easy on foot and you need a car for the wider region. Bar Harbor's free Island Explorer buses take you to trailheads and Jordan Pond in summer, so many visitors never drive. Out of season there is no public transport, and in summer the park roads and trailhead car parks get crowded.

Halifax's walkable core climbs steeply from the harbour. The historic ferry to Dartmouth is a pleasure in itself, and city buses keep running all year, if slowly. Beyond the peninsula, the coast and the valley need a hired car or a tour.

Shoppers will find more in Halifax. Bar Harbor's shopping is a summer stroll along Main Street and Cottage Street past fudge, fleece, balsam pillows and lobster souvenirs, with Maine wooden bowls and knitwear the best finds. Many of its shops close for the winter.

Halifax gives you a proper afternoon's browsing. Spring Garden Road and Barrington Street have the high-street shops, the North End and the Edwardian Hydrostone have independent boutiques and bookshops, and Nova Scotian pewter, pottery, woollens and tartan fill the market and craft galleries.

Neither is cheap in summer, but Bar Harbor costs more. Rooms are scarce, so even plain motels charge resort rates in July, August and the leaf season. Whale cruises, lobster dinners and the park fee add up, and camping on the island is the main way to save.

Halifax's hotels are also expensive in high season, and tax and tipping add to restaurant bills. Still, its museums are moderately priced, and walking and the ferry cost little. Both get cheaper in late spring and late autumn, though in Bar Harbor many places to eat and sleep close by then.

For live performance, Halifax is clearly the stronger of the two. In Bar Harbor the programme is mostly in July and August, when small chamber-music festivals hold concerts in churches and halls around Mount Desert Island, and the 1932 Criterion Theatre shows films and hosts touring acts. Out of season there is little on.

In Halifax there is music on most nights. Fiddles and East Coast songs fill downtown pubs, indie songwriters play small clubs, Symphony Nova Scotia performs at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium and Neptune Theatre stages plays and musicals, with a jazz festival in summer.

Rest in both places comes from calm rather than treatments, since there is no spa tradition in either. In Bar Harbor that means a massage at one of the larger inns, a porch over Frenchman Bay and an empty town in June or after the autumn colour fades. High summer brings cruise crowds to Main Street.

Halifax offers a few day spas, hotel spas and yoga studios. Its quiet comes from early mornings on the waterfront and the Victorian Public Gardens, and in summer people unwind with a cold lake swim.