Lake Placid or Toronto?

Neither city has a sea. Both have a short freshwater swimming season in high summer, and both work better for an afternoon swim than as the reason for a trip. The setting is the real difference. In Lake Placid you swim from the small beach on Mirror Lake in the middle of the village, from quiet ponds along the Saranac chain, or in rocky pools on the West Branch of the Ausable. It feels like swimming in the mountains.

Toronto has proper sandy beaches with a city around them. You take the ferry to Centre Island, Ward's Island or Hanlan's Point and look back at the skyline, or walk the boardwalk at Woodbine in the east end. Lake Ontario is less reliable, though. A change in wind can bring cold water up overnight, and swimming is sometimes advised against after heavy rain.

Toronto is far ahead for food. Its cooking follows its communities: the Chinatown on Spadina, Little India on Gerrard, Portuguese bakeries on Dundas West and Korean restaurants on Bloor. Some of the best meals are out in strip-mall plazas in Scarborough and Markham. Add St Lawrence Market, a peameal bacon sandwich and chef-driven places along Ossington, and you can eat well for a week without repeating yourself.

Lake Placid offers the usual American resort fare: big diner breakfasts, pizza, burgers, brewpubs, and a few lodge dining rooms with lake views. Maple syrup and craft beer are about as local as it gets. It is fine after a long hike, but there is little variety.

Toronto gives you more to see. The Royal Ontario Museum has its crystal-shaped extension, and the Art Gallery of Ontario has the Group of Seven inside Gehry's facade. Smaller visits such as the Bata Shoe Museum and the Aga Khan Museum can fill two or three days. Its old buildings are thin on the ground, though, apart from the Distillery District and Casa Loma.

Lake Placid's heritage is sporting. You can see the rink of the 1980 'Miracle on Ice', the ski jumps and the speed skating oval from two Winter Olympics, and John Brown's Farm is just outside town. It is interesting to sports fans, but a single day covers it.

The gap here is wide. Toronto has a nightlife area for most moods: wine and cocktail bars on Ossington and Dundas West, casual places on Queen West and in Parkdale, dressy clubs on King West, the gay village on Church Street and student bars around Little Italy. Last call is at 2am, and summer patios make the city much livelier than winter does.

Lake Placid has a few brewpubs on Main Street and hotel bars by the lake. They fill up after a ski day, and there are no clubs. Most people are in bed early before a dawn start.

This is Lake Placid's great strength. The High Peaks of the Adirondacks start almost at the edge of the village. You can climb Mount Marcy, at 1,629m the highest point in New York, or get big views from Cascade in half a day. You can paddle the Saranac Lakes, fly fish on the Ausable and ski the biggest vertical in the eastern United States at Whiteface.

Toronto's nature is good for a city. There are wooded ravines along the Don and the Humber, the oak savannah in High Park, the Scarborough Bluffs and kayaking off the Islands. Rocky hiking on the Niagara Escarpment is about an hour away. Anything wild like the Adirondacks, such as Algonquin, is a weekend trip.

Toronto has the stronger day trips, mainly because of Niagara. You can see the Falls, the 19th-century streets of Niagara-on-the-Lake and the wineries around them in one long day, and the train goes there. Stratford's Shakespeare season is about two hours away. Beyond that, the list is short.

Day trips from Lake Placid mostly lead into the wilderness. Saranac Lake, the Wild Center at Tupper Lake and Keene are close by. Fort Ticonderoga, Burlington across Lake Champlain and Montreal are each a couple of hours' drive, and you need a car for all of them.

Toronto has more ready-made attractions for children. There is the shark tunnel at the aquarium, the CN Tower's glass floor, a large zoo set in forested valleys, and dinosaurs at the Royal Ontario Museum. In summer you can take the ferry to Centreville's small amusement park, and the roller coasters at Canada's Wonderland are within reach. Indoor options carry the family through the cold months.

Lake Placid suits active families who like doing things more than watching them. Children can skate on Olympic ice, ride a bobsled at Mount Van Hoevenberg, slide down the toboggan chute onto the frozen lake and go to ski school at Whiteface. Santa's Workshop is about 20 minutes away.

Toronto is much easier without a car. Downtown is a flat grid you can walk. The PATH tunnels get you under the core in winter, the UP Express links the airport to Union Station, and the subway and red streetcars reach most neighbourhoods, though slowly in traffic. Trips out to the suburbs take a long ride.

In Lake Placid you can walk everywhere within the village, but nothing beyond it. The trailheads, Whiteface and the nearby towns all need a car, often on winding roads in real winter conditions.

Toronto is the place to shop, with plenty of range even if little is unique to it. There are luxury boutiques on Bloor through Yorkville, the glass-roofed Eaton Centre, Canadian designers and vintage shops on Queen West, and the secondhand jumble of Kensington Market.

In Lake Placid, shopping is one stretch of Main Street. It has good outfitters for ski and fly-fishing gear, plus shops selling Adirondack décor, balsam pillows and maple products, and not much else.

Both are expensive, and the costs are about the same overall. They just come from different places. In Lake Placid, resort-priced lodges in the busy seasons, lift tickets, guides and a rental car are what add up. Cabins, older motels and the quiet weeks of spring and late autumn help a lot, and hiking and paddling cost nothing.

In Toronto, the big costs are downtown hotels, plus tax and tips on every sit-down meal. The savings come from noodle shops and roti places in the suburbs, a flat transit fare, and free walks through the ravines.

Toronto has one of the largest English-language theatre scenes. Musicals fill the Royal Alexandra, and you can see opera and ballet at the Four Seasons Centre and the Toronto Symphony at Roy Thomson Hall. Massey Hall and the clubs on Queen West and College have live music most nights.

Lake Placid has a summer season from the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, including free concerts at the bandshell by Mirror Lake, plus the occasional show at the arts centre. For most of the year there is little to go to.

Lake Placid is the more restful of the two. Neither has a bathing tradition, but the village is quiet, the walk around Mirror Lake is calm, and the lodge spas offer saunas and hot tubs after a cold day. Old Adirondack porches over still water and winter fireplaces do much of the work.

Toronto has good hotel and day spas around Yorkville and a few Korean-style bathhouses in the suburbs. The everyday pace is busy, though, and the snowy outdoor Nordic spas are a drive into the countryside. An afternoon on Ward's Island is the nearest the city comes to slowing down.