Canberra or Ottawa?

Neither city is on the coast, but Ottawa offers much more summer swimming. In Canberra you swim in the rivers at Casuarina Sands, Kambah Pool or Pine Island, with no lifeguards, while algae often closes Lake Burley Griffin. The sea at Batemans Bay is a two-hour drive over the mountain.

Ottawa runs supervised sandy river beaches at Mooney's Bay, Westboro and Petrie Island. Better still, the clear, forest-ringed lakes of Gatineau Park, such as Meech Lake, are a short trip across the river. The season is only about two months long, but within it a swim is an easy afternoon out.

For food the two are much the same: good neighbourhood eating with no local cuisine and few top-end tables. Canberra's strengths are weekend brunch in Braddon, the Asian kitchens along Dickson's Woolley Street, and cool-climate shiraz-viognier and riesling from cellar doors less than an hour out.

Ottawa has more of a street-food side, with the ByWard Market's stalls and fried-dough pastries and the shawarma brought by its Lebanese community. Crossing into Gatineau adds Québécois dishes such as poutine and tourtière, and in late winter there are maple-syrup feasts at the sugar shacks.

Both capitals are built around national institutions, but Ottawa offers more to see and a stronger sense of history. Canberra's highlights are the Australian War Memorial, Parliament House with its grass-covered roof, and the National Gallery's large Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection. Griffin's geometric plan, seen from Mount Ainslie, is itself the sight, as there is almost no old streetscape.

Ottawa adds Gothic Revival architecture to the museums. Parliament Hill stands above the river, the Rideau Canal with its hand-worked locks is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Museum of History's hall of totem poles looks back across the water. The National Gallery of Canada, the War Museum and the Museum of Nature make a longer list than Canberra can match.

Both are government and university towns that go to bed early, but Ottawa offers a little more. Canberra's evenings mean cocktail bars and small breweries on Lonsdale Street and in the Civic laneways, and outside term and sitting weeks they can feel very still.

Ottawa has dance clubs and summer patios in the ByWard Market and a long run of pubs on Elgin Street. Anyone who wants to stay out late can cross to Gatineau, where last call comes later.

Canberra's bush and Ottawa's forest are equally close at hand. What differs is the kind of landscape and the season it suits. In Canberra, open eucalypt hills such as Black Mountain and Red Hill rise between the suburbs, with walking and mountain-bike trails, and kangaroos come out to graze on the reserves at dusk. Further out, the Brindabellas and Namadgi offer long hikes to granite summits above 1,800m, past Aboriginal rock-art sites. Winters are frosty but clear, so you can walk there all year.

Ottawa's wild country is Gatineau Park, with maple and pine forest, lakes and lookouts such as the Champlain Lookout, starting just across the river. Its autumn colour is superb. Summer brings riverside cycling and whitewater rafting upstream. In winter the cold becomes the point of going, with groomed cross-country ski trails in the park and a skating route nearly 8km long on the frozen canal.

Ottawa has much better day trips, chiefly because Montreal is about two hours away by train. Kingston and the Thousand Islands, Upper Canada Village and the canal towns such as Merrickville add variety.

Canberra's outings are quieter and need a car. The choices are a wine day around Murrumbateman, the gold-rush streets of Braidwood, the galleries of Bungendore or the Southern Highlands villages, all pleasant but none a reason to plan the trip.

With children the two are evenly matched, and in each the national museums carry most family days. Canberra has the hands-on science floors at Questacon, a zoo and aquarium where children get close to big cats, and Tidbinbilla, where short walks give a good chance of seeing kangaroos, emus and koalas. The playground at the National Arboretum comes with wide views. The distances, though, make a car a real help with small children.

Ottawa has no zoo or aquarium in town. Instead it has the dinosaurs at the Museum of Nature, the Children's Museum inside the Museum of History and the hangar of aircraft at the Aviation and Space Museum. Winter adds skating on the canal and tobogganing, and the bison and wolves of Parc Omega are about an hour's drive away.

Ottawa is far easier to get around. Its main sights form a compact centre you can cover on foot, the Museum of History is a walk across the Alexandra Bridge, and a light rail line and bike-share fill most gaps. A car is only needed for the further lakes and towns.

Canberra was laid out for driving. Civic, Braddon and the Parliamentary Triangle are each walkable, but the distances between them are long in the heat or the wind. Buses thin out in the evenings, so the lakeside cycle paths or a hire car are the practical answer.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Ottawa has more worth browsing. Bank Street in the Glebe and Wellington West have independent bookshops and boutiques, the ByWard Market has Indigenous art galleries, and maple syrup and Canadian outdoor gear make natural purchases.

In Canberra the best stop is the Sunday Old Bus Depot Markets in Kingston, along with the national gallery and museum shops for Aboriginal art prints. Beyond those, it is mostly the chains in the Canberra Centre.

Both cities cost about the same and are fairly expensive, with weekend hotel rates easing in each once government travellers leave. Canberra's main saving is that almost all its major institutions are free to enter, though Questacon, the zoo and a hire car add up.

In Ottawa, meals cost more than the menu shows once tax and tip are added, but Parliament tours are free and several museums have free hours. Skating and cycling by the canal cost nothing, and meals across the river in Gatineau tend to be a little cheaper.

Ottawa has the richer stage, based at the National Arts Centre beside the canal, with its orchestra and English, French and Indigenous theatre companies. In summer there is Bluesfest at LeBreton Flats, a jazz festival and Chamberfest.

Canberra has touring shows at the Canberra Theatre Centre and the symphony orchestra's season. Its one big event is the National Folk Festival at Easter. Many national tours skip the city, so most of the time you take what is on.

Ottawa has something to plan around. The outdoor Nordic spa in Chelsea, about fifteen minutes away, has hot pools, saunas and cold plunges among the trees, and is at its best when snow is falling.

Canberra has only a few day spas and hotel wellness centres. Its restful quality is the calm itself: quiet lakeside mornings and early nights, which suit a gentle break but not a wellness trip.