Edmonton or Tofino?

Neither place is for a warm swim, but only Tofino has a coastline worth travelling for. Edmonton is a prairie city, and its nearest beaches are small lakes such as Pigeon Lake and Sylvan Lake, a drive away, which algae can close in late summer. Most visitors who want to swim end up in the mall's indoor wave pool.

Tofino's beaches are wide and dramatic. You can walk the long sweep of Long Beach, cross the sandbar at Chesterman at low tide or take a surf lesson at Cox Bay. The cold Pacific means you go in wearing a wetsuit to surf, and the shore is mainly for walking and beach fires.

The two are about equal, but the food could hardly be more different. Edmonton is a city of Alberta beef steakhouses, Ukrainian perogies and cabbage rolls, and good Vietnamese, Ethiopian or Lebanese cooking tucked into strip malls. Whyte Avenue and 124 Street add craft breweries and a few ambitious prairie kitchens.

Tofino's food is about the sea. It serves spot prawns, Dungeness crab and Clayoquot oysters, with fish tacos from food trucks at one end and West Coast tasting menus at the other. The choice runs to a few dozen places that keep short hours in winter, so Edmonton gives you more variety while Tofino gives you a stronger sense of place.

Edmonton has the sights, modest as they are. The Royal Alberta Museum's First Nations galleries, the domed Legislature above the river, the Art Gallery of Alberta and the living-history streets of Fort Edmonton Park fill two good days.

In Tofino, culture means the Nuu-chah-nulth. You can visit galleries of carving and prints, perhaps watch a canoe being carved, and learn the story of the coast at the Kwisitis Visitor Centre. It fills an afternoon, and it is the setting rather than the sights that brings people here.

Edmonton is the only one of the two with a night out. Whyte Avenue's pubs, dive bars and small clubs fill with students at weekends, and the bars around the downtown arena come alive on hockey and concert nights. 124 Street suits a quieter glass of wine.

In Tofino the evening ends with dinner, a pint at the brewery taproom or a fire on the beach. Nothing stays open late, and most people are in bed early to catch the morning tide.

This is where Tofino leaves Edmonton far behind. It has ancient cedars on the boardwalk trails of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, the islands and inlets of Clayoquot Sound to explore by kayak, grey whales and sea otters from the boat and bears foraging along the shore at low tide. Winter storms crash onto the headlands, so even the wettest months have something to watch.

Edmonton's outdoors is gentler, and it starts right in town. More than 150km of trails run through the forested river valley, with skiing and skating in winter. Elk Island's bison herds and dark skies for the northern lights are under an hour away, but the mountains are a separate trip.

Neither is a good base for excursions, but Edmonton has a few more within reach by car. The onion-domed churches of the Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Village and the vintage machines of the Reynolds-Alberta Museum each make a solid day out. The badlands at Drumheller and the mountains at Jasper or Banff need an overnight stay.

Tofino's only real outing by road is Ucluelet's lighthouse loop and its small aquarium, a half day down the peninsula. Boat trips into Clayoquot Sound are trips into the wilderness rather than visits to other towns, so most days stay on the local coast.

Edmonton has far more built for children. West Edmonton Mall puts a waterpark, roller coasters and an ice rink under one roof, and the steam train at Fort Edmonton Park, the planetarium at the TELUS World of Science and the small Valley Zoo give a family a week of options in any weather.

Tofino gives children a different kind of freedom, with tide pools, driftwood forts, beginner surf lessons and whale-spotting from a boat. But it has nothing to fall back on when it rains, the water is too cold for long splashing, and the winding road in can be hard on young passengers.

In both places a car makes life much easier, for different reasons. Edmonton is a big, spread-out city. The LRT, the High Level Bridge and winter pedways help in the centre, but the mall and Fort Edmonton Park are slow to reach by bus.

Tofino is tiny but long and thin. The village itself is a few walkable blocks, a paved path for bikes runs towards the national park, and the best outings, to Meares Island or Hot Springs Cove, go by water taxi or floatplane rather than by road.

Edmonton offers far more shopping. West Edmonton Mall alone holds hundreds of chain stores. Whyte Avenue's record shops and vintage clothing and the boutiques and galleries on 124 Street add more individual shopping.

Tofino's best buys are in its galleries: Nuu-chah-nulth carving, silver jewellery and West Coast prints worth taking home. Beyond those you will find surf shops and souvenirs, and anything else means driving back across the island.

Edmonton is much easier on the budget. Hotel rooms are moderately priced except during festival weeks and big hockey games, car hire is reasonable, and free festivals and river valley trails make a summer stay affordable.

Tofino carries a remote-resort premium on almost everything: scarce rooms, groceries brought over the mountains, restaurant meals and boat tours. Campgrounds and the stormy months from November to March are the main ways to cut costs.

Edmonton has a real stage life, and Tofino has almost none. In August the Fringe fills Old Strathcona with hundreds of shows, and the Folk Music Festival takes over a hillside above the river. Through the rest of the year there are the Citadel Theatre, the symphony at the Winspear Centre, and opera and ballet at the Jubilee Auditorium.

In Tofino, live music means a local band at a pub now and then, plus a few community festivals in summer. Don't plan any evenings around performances.

Tofino is the better place to unwind, mainly because of its pace. Days follow the tides, and resort spas use seaweed and cedar in their treatments. A boat or floatplane takes you to Hot Springs Cove, where you can soak in natural hot pools that spill into the sea.

Edmonton's version is more deliberate. You can do the hot-cold circuit at a Nordic-style spa, at its best with snow on the ground, or spend a quiet afternoon among the plants in the Muttart Conservatory's pyramids. Most of the spas need a car.