Bar Harbor or Montreal?

Neither city is a beach destination, and the difference lies in the kind of water. Bar Harbor has a real sea beach at Sand Beach in Acadia, but the Gulf of Maine is too cold for more than a quick dip, so the swimming people enjoy is in Echo Lake and Lake Wood.

Montreal's swimming happens inside the city. There is the supervised beach on a filtered lake at Parc Jean-Drapeau and a small river beach in Verdun, and both are busy on hot summer weekends.

Bar Harbor eats well within a narrow range: whole boiled lobster at picnic tables, steamed clams, chowder, blueberry pie and popovers at Jordan Pond House. It is seasonal, with queues in summer and many kitchens shut in winter.

Montreal is a reason to travel in its own right. It has Mile End bagels, smoked meat, Québécois bistro cooking, the Jean-Talon and Atwater markets and a long list of Portuguese, Haitian, Lebanese and Vietnamese kitchens, all open year-round. You go to Montreal to eat, and to Bar Harbor to eat lobster.

Montreal has far more sightseeing. The grey-stone streets of Old Montreal, the Notre-Dame Basilica, Saint Joseph's Oratory and the Museum of Fine Arts make two or three full days.

Bar Harbor's culture fits into a rainy morning. There is the Abbe Museum on the Wabanaki, the Gilded Age cottages along the Shore Path and the Tiffany windows at St Saviour's. Its finest heritage may well be the granite bridges on Acadia's carriage roads.

Montreal stays out later than most North American cities. Bars are open until 3am, there are clubs along Boulevard Saint-Laurent, wine bars in Mile End and a long-established gay scene in the Village, and summer adds terraces and outdoor dance events.

Bar Harbor has a few pubs and taprooms near Main Street, full of hikers and cruise passengers. There are no clubs, and the streets are quiet well before midnight because many people get up for sunrise on Cadillac Mountain.

Bar Harbor wins because the national park is the town's back garden. Cadillac Mountain, Ocean Path past Thunder Hole, the iron rungs of the Precipice, whale and puffin cruises and the sandbar walk to Bar Island are all a few minutes away.

Montreal's nature is mostly the city kind: Mount Royal beside downtown, the Lachine Canal path and river surfing below the Lachine Rapids. The wilder country of the Laurentians and the Eastern Townships takes an hour or more to reach.

Montreal has the stronger outings. Ottawa's Parliament buildings and national museums are about two hours away by train, and the villages, covered bridges and wine route of the Eastern Townships are closer still. Quebec City works better as an overnight stay.

From Bar Harbor, day trips take in a string of small coastal places. There are the harbour villages of Mount Desert Island and the Cranberry Isles by ferry, with Castine, Stonington and Camden further off. They are pleasant but modest, and you need a car.

Bar Harbor suits active families who are happy outdoors. Children can explore the tide pools along the shore, ride bikes on the flat carriage roads, do the junior ranger activities in Acadia and take a whale-watching boat from the town pier. On a rainy day there is little to fall back on, and the cliff trails are not for small legs.

Montreal gives children more to do in any weather. The Biodome's rainforest and polar habitats, the Insectarium and the hands-on Science Centre in the Old Port are all indoors, while the Botanical Garden and the Expo 67 amusement park fill fine summer days. The drawback is the deep winter cold, which makes getting around with small children hard work.

Montreal is easy without a car. It has a walkable core, bike-share and separated bike lanes, a simple four-line metro and the underground network for winter days.

Bar Harbor's centre is tiny and easy to walk, and in summer the free Island Explorer buses reach the trailheads, Jordan Pond and the villages. Outside the season you need a car, and in summer traffic builds on the Park Loop Road and trailhead car parks fill early.

Montreal is good for a proper shopping day. Rue Sainte-Catherine has department stores and malls, the Golden Square Mile has the luxury end, and the Plateau, Mile End and Saint-Henri have independent designers and vintage shops.

Bar Harbor's Main Street sells souvenirs, outdoor fleece, fudge and Maine crafts from a few galleries. Many shops close for the winter.

Neither is cheap, but your money goes further in Montreal. Its best food is casual, the metro is reasonably priced, many festival concerts are free, and hotels are cheapest in winter.

Bar Harbor has too few rooms for its summer visitors, so even simple motels charge resort rates in high summer and leaf season. Hiking and the free shuttle cost little once you are there, and camping on the island is the main way to save.

In Bar Harbor, live performance happens in July and August. There are chamber-music concerts in churches and halls around Mount Desert Island, and films and touring acts at the art deco Criterion Theatre from 1932. Out of season there is very little to attend.

Performance in Montreal runs all year. The symphony, opera and Les Grands Ballets play at Place des Arts, French-language theatre ranges from the classics to new Québécois writing, and contemporary circus at TOHU is a local speciality. In summer the International Jazz Festival turns the Quartier des Spectacles into an open-air stage, with many concerts free.

Rest in Bar Harbor is quiet and simple: a massage at one of the larger hotels, a porch looking over Frenchman Bay, and the stillness of June or the weeks after the autumn colour fades. In high summer you have to get away from Main Street to find calm.

For a real bathing culture, go to Montreal. In the Quebec Nordic spa you move from outdoor hot pools and saunas to a cold plunge and then a rest by the fire, all year and often in the snow. There are circuits on Nuns' Island and aboard a converted ferry in the Old Port, and larger forest spas in the Laurentians.