Bar Harbor or Quebec City?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Bar Harbor gives you more water to enjoy. Sand Beach is a real shell-sand cove inside Acadia, even if the cold sea means few people stay in for long. Echo Lake has a guarded beach and warm freshwater only a short drive from town.

In Quebec City the St Lawrence is for looking at. The beach at Baie de Beauport is for sunbathing and volleyball, and proper swimming means driving out to Lac Saint-Joseph or Lac-Beauport.

Bar Harbor's food is all about the sea: whole boiled lobster, clams and chowder at waterfront shacks, then blueberry pie and popovers at Jordan Pond House. It is a happy, simple way to eat, but the choice is narrow, and many kitchens close for the winter.

Quebec City gives you more to explore. There is hearty Québécois cooking, from tourtière to sugar pie, and sugar-shack feasts in early spring. Bistros in Saint-Roch and Saint-Jean-Baptiste cook with cheese, duck and cider from the Île d'Orléans, and the Marché du Vieux-Port, the microbreweries and ice cider add to the choice. Skip the set menus inside the walls.

This is where the two differ most. In Bar Harbor, culture means the Abbe Museum's Wabanaki collections, the surviving summer cottages along the Shore Path and the Tiffany windows at St Saviour's, which together take a couple of hours.

Quebec City is the only walled city in North America north of Mexico. Its upper and lower towns, the Citadelle, Place Royale and the 1759 battlefield on the Plains of Abraham can fill several days, and the Musée de la civilisation and the fine arts museum add more.

Bar Harbor's evenings are a pint in a taproom or a harbour-view bar on Main Street. Now and then a band plays, the town is asleep well before midnight, and out of season there is hardly anything open.

Quebec City has three distinct places to go out. The Grande Allée has terraces and party bars, Saint-Jean-Baptiste has pubs and student bars, and Saint-Roch has cocktail and wine bars. You will find more drinking than dancing, but in summer the nights run late.

Both are excellent for the outdoors, but the landscapes are very different. Bar Harbor is a coastal park: pink granite mountains rising straight from the sea, iron-rung climbs on the Precipice, the surf at Thunder Hole and kayaking among the islands. All of it is close to town, and much of it can be reached on foot or by shuttle.

Quebec City's nature is inland and wintry. Montmorency Falls is a short hop from the centre, while the boreal valley of Jacques-Cartier and real downhill skiing at Le Massif and Mont-Sainte-Anne are about an hour away. For a ski or snowshoe trip it beats Bar Harbor's cross-country tracks easily.

From Bar Harbor, a day out mostly means more of the same coast. The harbour villages around Mount Desert Island and the boat to the Cranberry Isles make easy half days. Castine, Stonington and Camden are up to two hours' drive away, and they offer more harbours, boats and galleries rather than a change of scene.

Quebec City's outings are closer and more varied. A short drive takes you to the orchards and stone parishes of the Île d'Orléans, the pilgrimage basilica at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré or the Huron-Wendat longhouse at Wendake, and Baie-Saint-Paul in Charlevoix makes an easy full day among galleries and hills. You will want a car for these from either base.

Bar Harbor is good for families who like the outdoors. Children can explore tide pools, walk the sandbar to Bar Island, ride bikes on the carriage roads and do the junior ranger activities. On a rainy day, though, there is very little to do.

Quebec City has a little more for children, and it lasts all year. There are toboggan runs on the Dufferin Terrace, the winter carnival, an aquarium with polar bears and walruses, and a forest water park. The old town's stairways are hard going with pushchairs.

Both centres are easy to walk around, and both need a car beyond them, but in different ways. Bar Harbor's compact downtown and the free Island Explorer buses to the trailheads mean many summer visitors never drive. Out of season the buses stop and you need a car.

Quebec City keeps its bus network running all year and has a ferry to Lévis. On foot, the cliff between the upper and lower town means stairs or the funicular, and the slopes are icy in winter.

Bar Harbor's shops sell souvenirs, outdoor gear and fudge. The best finds are Maine wooden bowls and knitwear from a few galleries, and many shops close for the winter.

Quebec City has a little more depth. There are craft workshops and milliners in Petit-Champlain, antiques on Rue Saint-Paul, and independent fashion and bookshops on Rue Saint-Joseph. Maple products, ice cider and Inuit art are the things worth taking home.

Bar Harbor is the more expensive stay. There are few rooms for the number of visitors, so even plain motels charge resort rates through the summer and the leaf season. Camping on the island and the free shuttle are the main ways to save.

Quebec City is not cheap either, especially inside the walls during the carnival or in summer. You can stay for less in Saint-Roch, and the walls, terraces and the Plains of Abraham cost nothing to enjoy.

Bar Harbor's live music happens in July and August: chamber concerts in churches around the island, shows at the 1932 Criterion Theatre and bands in the pubs. After that there is very little.

Quebec City has a year-round stage. The Grand Théâtre is home to Canada's oldest symphony orchestra and the city's opera, and Le Diamant stages Robert Lepage's experimental work. In July the Festival d'été brings international bands to the Plains of Abraham, though most theatre is in French.

Rest in Bar Harbor means a hotel massage and a porch over Frenchman Bay. It works best in June or late autumn, when the cruise crowds have gone.

Quebec City has a real bathing tradition. Its outdoor Nordic spas, with hot pools, saunas and cold plunges, sit in the forest around Lac-Beauport and even in the old port, and they are at their best in snow. Slow walks on the Dufferin Terrace round off a restful stay.