Lake Louise or Vancouver?

Lake Louise has no beach life at all. The glacial lakes stay near freezing even in August, so swimming means a hotel pool or a drive to the warmer lakes near Banff.

Vancouver at least has a real summer shore. English Bay, Kitsilano and the sandy run to Spanish Banks fill with picnics and volleyball on warm days, and the saltwater pool at Kitsilano gives a comfortable swim. The sea itself is still cold, so the beaches are something to enjoy on a stay, not the reason for one.

Eating at Lake Louise means hotel dining rooms with mountain views, Alberta beef, and a bakery and deli for hikers. The best meal may well be soup and baking at the Lake Agnes teahouse after the climb. Choice is narrow, and serious eaters head to Banff.

Vancouver is in another league, especially for Asian cooking. Cantonese seafood and dim sum, Korean barbecue, ramen and cheap, good sushi sit beside menus built on Pacific salmon and oysters. Granville Island's market and the breweries along Main Street fill the gaps between meals.

At Lake Louise the culture amounts to the Chateau, which grew out of an 1890s log chalet, and the old log railway station. The rest of the attraction is landscape.

Vancouver has much more to offer, even if it is a young city. The Museum of Anthropology, with its hall of Northwest Coast totem poles and canoes, is worth a trip on its own, and Gastown's Victorian warehouses, the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Garden and the Emily Carr paintings at the Art Gallery fill another day or two.

Evenings at Lake Louise end at a fireside lodge pub or with après-ski drinks, and most people go to bed early to catch the sunrise at the lakes.

Vancouver is no party city, but it gives you real choice: wine and cocktail bars in Gastown, taprooms east of downtown, summer patios in Yaletown and Kitsilano, weekend clubs on Granville Street and the gay bars of Davie Village.

The scenery in both places is world class, but of different kinds. Lake Louise puts you in high alpine country: the Victoria Glacier, Moraine Lake under the Valley of the Ten Peaks, trails to the Plain of Six Glaciers and grizzlies above the gondola, with the Icefields Parkway and Yoho close by.

Vancouver mixes ocean and rainforest. Cedar forest in Stanley Park, the canyons at Lynn and Capilano, kayaking in Deep Cove, whale watching and the Sea-to-Sky drive to Squamish and Whistler are all close. The ski hills on the North Shore are lit at night and sit under half an hour from downtown.

From Lake Louise most outings are scenic drives, with Banff's hot springs and museums the main town trip and Field or Golden as smaller stops over the pass.

Vancouver offers a little more variety. Victoria makes a proper day out by ferry, with its harbour and Parliament Buildings, and Steveston, Fort Langley, Bowen Island and Whistler give shorter trips to real places rather than just viewpoints.

Lake Louise works for families who are happy to spend the whole day outdoors. Toddlers can manage the flat lakeshore path, older children get canoeing, the gondola and ski lessons in winter, and the lodges welcome children. The harder part is everything else: long drives between stops, crowded lakeshores in summer, cold weather up high, and no zoo, museum or play attraction for a grey afternoon.

Vancouver gives children far more variety. The Grouse Mountain gondola, the treetop walkways over the North Shore canyons, the tidal pools on the summer beaches and the children's market on Granville Island are all easy to reach, and Playland adds a few rides in summer. There is no big theme park, though, and the zoo is a long way out in the valley.

At Lake Louise the village is tiny, but the lake sits 4km uphill and Moraine Lake further still. In summer that means park shuttles or very early parking, and you need a car for the Parkway or Yoho.

In Vancouver you can do without a car. The central neighbourhoods are walkable, and SkyTrain from the airport, the SeaBus and buses all take one card. The seawall makes cycling an easy way round, though the beaches and the North Shore take longer to reach.

At Lake Louise, shopping means outdoor gear, maps and groceries in the village mall and a few boutiques in the Chateau.

Vancouver has a real shopping scene. Robson Street has the chains, the luxury labels are on Alberni, and local athleisure and technical clothing are a speciality. For something better to take home, look for Northwest Coast Indigenous prints and carvings, or the glassblowers on Granville Island.

Both are expensive, but Lake Louise is harder on the budget. It has few beds, resort-priced meals and park, gondola and lift passes on top. The usual way round this is to sleep in Banff or Canmore, or at the campground, and come up the valley for free hiking.

Vancouver gives you more ways to save. Noodle shops and casual dim sum feed you well for little, transit is fairly priced, and Stanley Park, the seawall and the beaches cost nothing.

Lake Louise has no stage to speak of, perhaps a pianist in a hotel lounge, and anything more means the arts centre in Banff.

Vancouver has a full local calendar. The symphony plays in the 1927 Orpheum, and opera and Ballet BC perform at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Summer is the highlight, with Shakespeare in tents at Vanier Park, the Fringe on Granville Island and the folk festival at Jericho Beach.

Lake Louise relaxes you through silence more than treatments. The lakeside hotels have spas, and winter and the shoulder seasons are deeply quiet, but in July and August the shoreline is busy with coaches. The nearest hot springs are in Banff.

Vancouver has a little more to offer. Yoga studios, hotel day spas and the reflexology parlours of Chinatown and Richmond are all close at hand, and a seawall stroll unwinds you well. Neither place has a bathing tradition of its own.