Boston or Halifax?

Neither city is a beach destination, and in both the Atlantic stays cold even in late summer. The difference is in how you reach the beach. In Boston, Revere Beach is a few stops out on the Blue Line and Singing Beach is a commuter-rail ride away, so a beach afternoon needs no car.

Halifax's ocean beaches, from the granite and pale sand of Crystal Crescent to the long arc of Martinique, are wilder and need a drive. Lawrencetown is better for surfing than swimming. Locals swim in lakes such as Chocolate Lake and Lake Banook, which warm up far better than the sea.

Both cities eat best from the sea, with lobster, chowder and oysters on menus in each, but Boston has much more besides. The North End's Italian dining rooms and cannoli, Chinatown's dim sum and the chef-led restaurants of Cambridge and the South End give a week of variety.

Halifax keeps it simpler. It has haddock and Digby scallops at waterfront counters, the donair late at night, the Seaport Farmers' Market on a Saturday morning and Annapolis Valley cider. It is good eating for a few days, but there is less range and few fine-dining options.

This is where the two cities differ most. Boston lays out the Revolution on foot along the Freedom Trail and keeps whole nineteenth-century neighbourhoods intact in Beacon Hill and Back Bay. Add the Museum of Fine Arts, the Gardner and Harvard's collections, and there is enough for several full days.

Halifax's story is naval and maritime. It has the Citadel and its noon gun, the Halifax Explosion and the Titanic at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, and the immigration shed at Pier 21. It is absorbing and well told, but you can see it in about two days.

Both are pub towns kept lively by students, and neither has much of a club scene. Boston's evenings move between Irish pubs, sports bars around Fenway and cocktail lounges in the Seaport. They end early, because the subway stops shortly after midnight and bars close by 2am.

In Halifax, the crowds gather on the patios and in the brewery taprooms around Argyle Street, and the North End has smaller bars with a more local crowd. Weekends run fairly late, though midweek nights in winter are quiet.

Boston's outdoors is landscaped and gentle, while Halifax's is rough and close to wilderness. In Boston that means Olmsted's Emerald Necklace of parks, sailing and kayaking on the Charles, and summer ferries to the Harbor Islands. The highlight is whale-watching, with boats leaving the waterfront for Stellwagen Bank to see humpbacks.

In Halifax, granite barrens and lakes begin at the edge of the city in the Blue Mountain-Birch Cove wilderness, and the bare headlands of Peggy's Cove are under an hour away. Sea kayaking along the indented south shore and surfing at Lawrencetown are easy to arrange. Neither city has real mountains close by.

Boston has the longer list, and more of it is reachable without a car. Salem and Concord are on the commuter rail, while Lexington, Plymouth and the North Shore fishing towns are close by. Newport's mansions, with Providence on the way, make a fuller day out.

Halifax's list is short but lovely. Along the South Shore are the painted houses and harbour of Lunenburg, Mahone Bay and Chester, and inland are Wolfville's wineries and Grand Pré in the Annapolis Valley. Nearly all of them need a hired car or a tour.

Boston has the large museums for children that Halifax lacks: the New England Aquarium, the Museum of Science and the Children's Museum. It also has the swan boats and bronze ducklings in the Public Garden. The flat, compact centre makes getting about with a pushchair easy.

Halifax is gentle and safe, and the Dartmouth ferry, the kilted soldiers at the Citadel and the Discovery Centre fill a couple of days well. With no aquarium and the main zoo far out of town, most families move on to the coast sooner.

Boston has a subway and Halifax has no rail transit at all, and that shapes how you get around each city. The T, the oldest subway in the United States, runs out from a flat, walkable centre to Cambridge, Fenway and the airport, though it is ageing and stops around midnight. In town, a car is more of a burden than a help.

The Halifax peninsula is compact enough to walk, but the streets climb steeply from the harbour. Beyond it there are only slow buses and the Dartmouth ferry, and visitors who want to see the province usually drive.

Boston has enough for a proper shopping day: Newbury Street's boutiques and flagship stores in brownstones, the Copley Place and Prudential Center malls for luxury labels, and antiques on Charles Street. Halifax shopping is small-scale, with the high street on Spring Garden Road, independent shops in the Hydrostone and Nova Scotian pottery, pewter and woollens, so it is better for souvenirs than a big shop.

Neither is a budget city, but Halifax is easier on the wallet. Restaurant meals cost about what they do elsewhere in Canada, lobster is fair value, and room rates fall noticeably in late spring and after mid-October. The catch is the hire car that most visitors end up needing.

Boston's hotels are among the most expensive in the country, and meals out cost a lot at every level. The free Freedom Trail and parks and the compact centre help, but there is no cheap way to see the city.

For classical music and serious theatre, Boston is far stronger. It has the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Symphony Hall, the Handel and Haydn Society and Boston Ballet, with drama at the Huntington and the A.R.T. Students from Berklee fill small jazz rooms as well.

Halifax's strength is informal. Celtic and East Coast music plays in downtown pubs most nights, and the local songwriting scene is good. Symphony Nova Scotia and Neptune Theatre offer only a modest programme.

Neither city has a bathing tradition, and in both, relaxing means a hotel spa and a slow walk. Boston is the brisker city, so calm comes in pockets such as the Esplanade, the Arnold Arboretum and Beacon Hill once the day-trippers leave. Halifax is slower-paced everywhere, and a cold lake swim followed by an idle afternoon is its own kind of rest.