Halifax or Quebec City?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Halifax has genuine ocean beaches: the pale sand of Crystal Crescent and the long sweep of Martinique Beach are both within an hour, and Lawrencetown draws surfers. The Atlantic stays bracing even in late summer, so many people swim in Chocolate Lake or Lake Banook inside the city instead.

Quebec City's St Lawrence is cold, tidal and fast. The beach at Baie de Beauport is for sunbathing and volleyball, and a real swim means driving out to Lac-Beauport or Lac Saint-Joseph.

Halifax is a seafood town above all, with lobster rolls, Digby scallops, Nova Scotia oysters and the city's own late-night donair. Away from the sea, though, its choice of restaurants is limited.

Quebec City has the more rounded food scene. Hearty Québécois dishes such as tourtière, pea soup and poutine sit alongside bistros in Saint-Roch and Saint-Jean-Baptiste cooking duck, cheese and game from the Île d'Orléans and Charlevoix. Come in early spring and the sugar shacks serve maple-season feasts. The set menus inside the walls are hit and miss, so it pays to eat outside them.

Both cities have a star-shaped citadel on a hill, but the similarity stops there. Halifax's sights fill a satisfying weekend and tell the story of a naval port and an arrival point: the immigration museum in the harbour shed where newcomers first landed in Canada, the Maritime Museum's Titanic and harbour explosion displays, and Maud Lewis's tiny painted house at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

In Quebec City, the whole old town is the attraction. It has the only city walls still standing north of Mexico, the Château Frontenac above the Dufferin Terrace and the colonial stone houses of Place Royale. On the Plains of Abraham, the battle that ended New France was fought. Together they make a much richer visit with far more atmosphere.

The two are much alike: friendly, student-fuelled, busy on summer weekends and quiet on winter weeknights, with little in the way of clubbing. Halifax's evenings are pub nights around Argyle Street and the waterfront, often with a fiddler in the corner, while the North End has smaller bars.

Quebec City feels more continental. The terraces of the Grande Allée fill with party crowds outside the walls, Rue Saint-Jean has taprooms and student pubs, and locals drift down to the cocktail and wine bars of Saint-Roch.

Halifax's outdoors is the sea's edge: wooded Point Pleasant Park, the old forts on McNabs Island, the bare granite at Peggy's Cove, and sea kayaking or surfing along a heavily indented shore. There are no real hills, though.

Quebec City has wilder and more varied country. Montmorency Falls, taller than Niagara, is a quarter of an hour from the centre. The glacial valley of Jacques-Cartier national park and the ski slopes of Mont-Sainte-Anne and Le Massif are within an hour. Winter adds cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and ice canoeing, which turns the cold months into a season of their own.

Both offer a short list of good outings that mostly need a car, but the outings differ. From Halifax they run along the sea: painted Lunenburg, the three waterside churches of Mahone Bay and the lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, with Wolfville's wineries and Acadian Grand Pré inland.

Quebec City's best trip is much closer and more rural: the farm parishes, orchards and cideries of the Île d'Orléans, twenty minutes across a bridge. The pilgrimage church at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, the Huron-Wendat community at Wendake and the gallery village of Baie-Saint-Paul complete the list.

Halifax keeps children happy for a few days with the Dartmouth ferry, the noon gun at the Citadel and the hands-on Discovery Centre. There is no aquarium or theme park, though, so families usually head out along the coast before long.

Quebec City has more to fill a longer stay. The aquarium has polar bears and walruses, Montmorency Falls has a cable car and zip lines, and a forest water park has slides in summer and tube runs in winter. Winter brings tobogganing on the Dufferin Terrace and the carnival. Pushchairs struggle on the old town's stairways, and deep cold needs proper kit.

Getting around is much the same in both: compact, walkable centres, buses rather than rail, and a hire car for anything further out. The climbs differ. Halifax's streets rise steeply from the harbour, and the old Dartmouth ferry makes a pleasant ride across it.

In Quebec City a cliff separates the upper and lower towns, crossed by the Breakneck Stairs or the funicular, and it turns icy in winter. Express buses run along the main roads, and you can at least reach Montmorency Falls without a car.

Halifax shopping means a few crafts. Pewter, tartan and woollens come from the market and galleries, and there are independent shops in the Hydrostone and the North End.

Quebec City offers more to browse. The narrow lanes of Petit-Champlain hold craft workshops, milliners and jewellers. Rue Saint-Paul is lined with antiques shops, and Rue Saint-Joseph is where locals buy fashion and design. Galleries sell Inuit and First Nations art, and ice cider makes a good thing to take home.

Neither city is cheap, and both add sales tax and a tip to every meal. Halifax is the more expensive of the two. It has little budget accommodation, and the car you need to see the coast adds a lot to the bill.

Quebec City is somewhat kinder to the wallet. Many of its best experiences are free: walking the walls, the Plains of Abraham and the Dufferin Terrace. Staying in Saint-Roch rather than inside the walls also brings room rates down.

The cities differ in kind. Halifax wins for informal music: Celtic and East Coast songs in downtown pubs most nights, a local songwriting scene and a summer jazz festival. Its formal stage is small, with Symphony Nova Scotia and Neptune Theatre but no opera.

Quebec City has the deeper formal programme. The Grand Théâtre houses Canada's oldest symphony orchestra and an opera company, Robert Lepage's Le Diamant stages experimental work, and the Festival d'été brings international bands to the Plains of Abraham in July. Most of its theatre is in French.

Halifax has no spa culture to speak of. Relaxing there means a quiet morning on the waterfront, the Public Gardens and a cold swim.

Quebec City has a real tradition in its Nordic spas, outdoor circuits of hot pools, saunas and cold plunges, several within half an hour around Lac-Beauport and one in the old port itself. They are at their best in deep winter, with steam rising into the snow. Café afternoons in Saint-Jean-Baptiste make an easy follow-on.