Lake George or Toronto?

Lake George is the better place to swim. Its clear water warms up through July and August, the state beach at the south end of the village has sand, lifeguards and a view of the mountains, and many people swim from a boat or from an island in the Narrows. The beaches are modest and fill early on hot weekends, but swimming is a real reason to come.

Toronto's beaches on the Toronto Islands and at Woodbine come as a pleasant surprise rather than a reason to go. Lake Ontario is cooler, a change in wind can chill it overnight, and swimming is sometimes advised against after heavy rain. Plan an afternoon on the sand with a view of the skyline, not a beach trip.

The gap here is wide. Toronto eats from all over the world: Chinatown on Spadina, Greek tavernas on the Danforth, Portuguese bakeries on Dundas West, and Hakka, Sri Lankan and Persian cooking in the suburban plazas of Scarborough and Markham. On top of that come St Lawrence Market and a tier of chef-driven restaurants along Ossington.

Lake George serves resort food: pizza, burgers, pancakes and waterfront decks where you pay for the view. A few more careful dining rooms in Bolton Landing cook game and lake fish, but visitors who care about food tend to drive to Saratoga Springs for dinner.

Toronto has the major institutions. The Royal Ontario Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario with its Group of Seven paintings, and smaller visits such as the Aga Khan and Bata Shoe museums can fill two or three full days.

Lake George has one story to tell: the 1757 siege of Fort William Henry, the episode behind The Last of the Mohicans. It is told in the reconstructed fort, with musket demonstrations, and in a small museum in the old courthouse. For deeper history you drive to Fort Ticonderoga or Saratoga.

Toronto gives you a real choice of evenings. There are cocktail and wine bars on Ossington and Dundas West, casual places in Parkdale, clubs on King West where people dress up and the gay village on Church Street, although last call comes at 2am. A night out at Lake George means beer on a lakeside deck along Canada Street on a summer weekend, there are no clubs, and from autumn to spring the village is quiet.

Lake George is the place for the outdoors. The lake runs 50km between forested ridges and holds more than a hundred islands, which makes it ideal for kayaking, sailing and fishing. Prospect Mountain, Black Mountain and the Tongue range give wide Adirondack views, the High Peaks are under two hours north, and Gore Mountain has serious downhill skiing in winter.

In Toronto, nature runs through the city itself: wooded ravines along the Don and the Humber, the oak savannah of High Park, the Scarborough Bluffs and paddling around the Islands. It makes a good afternoon, but real wilderness such as Algonquin is a weekend away.

Lake George has more variety within an easy drive. Saratoga Springs has its spa and racecourse, Fort Ticonderoga stands over Lake Champlain, and Lake Placid and the Vermont towns of Bennington and Manchester are also in range, though you need a car for every one.

Toronto has one outstanding day out: Niagara Falls with Niagara-on-the-Lake and its wineries, which you can reach by train as well as by car. Stratford's Shakespeare season is the other draw, and after that the list gets short.

Both suit children well, but in different ways. Lake George is a classic summer resort, with the Great Escape and its water park, a gently sloping beach with lifeguards, paddlewheel steamboats, mini golf along Canada Street and cottages with kitchens, but much of it closes after the summer.

Toronto works all year round. Children get the shark tunnel at the aquarium, the glass floor of the CN Tower, the zoo and the dinosaurs at the Royal Ontario Museum. In summer there is Centreville on Centre Island, and the roller coasters of Canada's Wonderland are 40 minutes away.

Toronto works without a car. The downtown grid is flat and walkable, the underground PATH helps in winter, a train runs in from the airport, and the subway and red streetcars reach most neighbourhoods, though slowly.

You can walk around Lake George village in minutes, and seasonal trolleys run to Glens Falls. The hamlets along the shore, the trailheads and every day trip need a car, though, and parking in summer is a chore. A rented boat is the best way to see the lake.

Toronto is the place to shop. It has the luxury houses of Bloor Street and Yorkville, the Eaton Centre under its glass roof, Canadian designers and vintage on Queen West, and the jumble of Kensington Market. Lake George offers T-shirts and fudge on Canada Street and outlet centres on Route 9. Its one real draw is Adirondack craft, such as rustic furniture, maple syrup and balsam pillows, which is more rooted in the place than Toronto's general Canadian souvenirs.

Neither is cheap, and the costs fall in different places. At Lake George, summer weekends and lakefront rooms are expensive. You can save with an older motel on Route 9, a cottage with a kitchen, the free beaches and trails, or a visit in spring or late autumn, when prices drop a long way.

In Toronto, downtown hotels and sit-down dinners with tax and tip add up quickly. The savings come from eating in noodle shops and suburban food courts and from free walks through the ravines and around the Islands.

Toronto is one of the great English-language theatre cities. It has musicals at the Royal Alexandra, the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet at the Four Seasons Centre, the Toronto Symphony and Massey Hall, plus indie, jazz and Caribbean music on Queen West and College most nights.

Lake George's programme belongs to the summer: free concerts in Shepard Park, a jazz weekend in September, a chamber music festival in August and summer theatre. For orchestras and ballet, visitors drive to the amphitheatre in Saratoga Springs.

Lake George is the easier place to slow down, as long as you stay away from the village in high summer. The resort hotels around Bolton Landing have full spas, lakeside cottages and early mornings on the water set an unhurried pace, and Saratoga's historic mineral baths are under an hour away.

Toronto has hotel spas and day spas around Yorkville and a few Korean-style bathhouses in the suburbs, but daily life is busy, and the outdoor Nordic spas mean a drive into the countryside. Within the city, a walk in the ravines or an afternoon on Ward's Island is the quietest you will find.