Fairbanks or Tromso?

Neither city is a beach destination, but the swimming differs in kind. Fairbanks swims in fresh water: on a hot summer afternoon locals head to the sandy area at Chena Lakes or to Harding Lake, about an hour south. Tromso has the cold Atlantic, with small strips like Telegrafbukta and the white sand of Sommaroy, where a dip is a brief, bracing plunge that is best paired with a sauna.

Tromso eats noticeably better. Its Arctic larder of skrei cod, king crab, halibut, stockfish and cloudberries is served on the old wooden harbour quays, alongside a few ambitious kitchens cooking with northern produce. Fish soup after a cold excursion is a small pleasure in its own right.

Fairbanks is plainer: wild salmon, reindeer sausage with sourdough pancakes, summer salmon bakes for visitors and a surprising number of Thai restaurants. Beyond those, most of the choice is diners, roadhouses and chains along the highways. Both towns have local beer, and in Tromso that means a nineteenth-century brewery.

The two are about level, and each takes a day or two, but the stories they tell are different. Fairbanks is about Alaska Native life and the gold-rush frontier. The Museum of the North, the Athabascan exhibits at the Morris Thompson centre, the cabins of Pioneer Park and the pipeline north of town all tell that story.

Tromso's draw is polar exploration and architecture. The Arctic Cathedral with its glass mosaic, the Polar Museum's Amundsen and Nansen material and the Sami collections at Tromso Museum are the highlights. A few streets of painted wooden houses also make its centre the more attractive of the two.

Tromso goes out properly at weekends. Students and the long dark keep Storgata and the harbour streets busy with pubs, cocktail bars and a couple of dance floors that run late, although midweek is quiet.

Fairbanks offers brewery taprooms, old saloons with pool tables and dive bars with keepsakes pinned to the ceiling, and no real clubs. A night out there is a drink with character, while in Tromso it can last until the small hours.

Both are excellent for the aurora and the wild, but Tromso's setting is grander. Mountains rise straight from the fjords around the island, and the Fjellheisen cable car puts you on a ridge in minutes. Winter adds orca and humpback whales, the Lyngen Alps are about two hours away, and summer brings midnight-sun hikes and kayaking among the skerries.

Fairbanks is gentler, colder and more inland: boreal forest, wide rivers and rounded hills, with granite tors at Angel Rocks and moose along the roads. Its dry winter skies often show the aurora from the edge of town, and Denali makes a fine overnight trip.

Neither has much in the way of other towns to visit, and both send you into wilderness instead. From Fairbanks the stops have a frontier flavour: Christmas-themed North Pole, the railway town of Nenana, the restored roadhouse at Big Delta and old mining sites along the Steese Highway. Tromso's outings are coastal: the island fishing village of Sommaroy, the trading post at Hillesoy and the hamlets of Kvaloya and Senja, with more scenic drives along the way.

For children the two are broadly level, and in both the highlights are animals and snow. Fairbanks has the little train at Pioneer Park, musk oxen and reindeer at the university's research station, and sled-dog kennels, but every outing means a drive.

Tromso has Polaria's bearded seals, a science centre, husky rides and reindeer feeding, and its calm, walkable centre makes the days simpler with small children. In both, winter means deep cold and late aurora nights, so summer is the easier season for a family.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. In Tromso you can walk across the centre in about a quarter of an hour, buses run to the airport and the mainland, and the walk over the bridge to the Arctic Cathedral is a sight in itself. Icy, steep streets in winter call for grippy footwear.

Fairbanks is a spread-out town of highways and strip developments, and only its small downtown is pleasant on foot. The buses are thin, so nearly everyone hires a car, and in winter that means driving on ice in the dark with a block heater plugged in overnight. In summer the Alaska Railroad to Denali is a welcome alternative.

Shopping is practical in both, so the difference is what you bring home. Fairbanks offers Alaska Native beadwork, birch-bark baskets and carvings, plus fur hats and gold-nugget jewellery. In Tromso, Storgata has good outdoor gear for thermal layers, along with Norwegian knitwear and Sami crafts.

Neither is cheap, but Fairbanks costs less. Its meals and groceries are pricey because everything is shipped in, and the hire car and guided tours add up. Even so, winter rooms soften outside the peak aurora weeks, and the museums and parks are modestly priced.

Tromso carries full Norwegian prices on restaurant meals and especially alcohol, and its whale, husky and aurora excursions mount up quickly. Supermarkets, self-catering flats and hunting for the aurora yourself in the hills above town are the main ways to save.

Tromso has the fuller programme. The Arctic Philharmonic and the Halogaland Theatre perform through the season, the Northern Lights Festival brings music in midwinter, the film festival fills the cinemas in January, and in summer there are midnight concerts in the Arctic Cathedral. Theatre is mostly in Norwegian.

Fairbanks is a community affair: an occasional symphony or light opera, outdoor Shakespeare in summer, and two events with real local character, the Festival of Native Arts and the Athabascan fiddle festival in November.

Fairbanks has the better soak. Chena Hot Springs, about an hour and a half east, is a natural outdoor pool in the forest that has been used for more than a century. It is magical on a frozen night, and many visitors stay over so they can make the most of it.

Tromso relaxes the Nordic way, with floating saunas in the harbour and a plunge into the fjord, plus a large public swimming hall. Its busy round of late aurora tours and early excursions leaves less room to slow down.