Montreal or Newport, Rhode Island?

Newport is the only one of the two where a beach vacation makes sense. Easton's Beach sits at the foot of the Cliff Walk, Second and Third Beaches in Middletown are longer and wilder, and Gooseberry is a small, sheltered cove. All of them are a short drive from the harbour.

In Montreal, swimming is a summer extra. There is the supervised lake beach on Île Notre-Dame, a small river beach at Verdun and Oka's sandy shore about an hour away. Both swimming seasons run only from late June to around the end of August, but only Newport has salt water and surf.

Food is one of the strongest reasons to choose Montreal. You have Mile End bagels, smoked meat, poutine, sugar-shack meals in early spring, Québécois bistros and the Jean-Talon and Atwater markets. Bring-your-own-wine restaurants across the Plateau and Little Italy make dinner easy.

Newport does one thing well, and that is New England seafood: lobster rolls, clear-broth chowder, clam cakes and oysters on the wharves off Thames Street. After a few days the choice starts to feel narrow, and some kitchens cut their hours in winter, so keen eaters often drive to Providence.

Both cities give you two or three good days of sightseeing, but of very different kinds. Montreal tells a city's story through the grey-stone streets of Old Montreal, the blue and gold interior of Notre-Dame Basilica and the archaeology at Pointe-à-Callière, and it has serious art at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Newport's sights are houses: the Vanderbilt-era mansions on Bellevue Avenue, toured room by room, and one of America's largest groups of colonial houses around the Point and Historic Hill, with Touro Synagogue among them. Choose Montreal for galleries and Newport for grand houses and early American history.

For a night out, Montreal wins easily. Bars serve until 3am, students fill them all week, and Boulevard Saint-Laurent runs from cocktail bars to clubs. Beyond that there are the big clubs of the Village and the after-hours electronic parties.

Newport's evenings mean pubs and waterfront decks around Thames Street. They are loud on a summer Saturday with sailing crowds and wedding parties, but there are few clubs and the night finishes early. Out of season only a handful of local pubs stay busy.

Montreal has the wider range of outdoor options. The wooded park on Mount Royal rises beside downtown, and the Lachine Canal and separated bike lanes make cycling easy. Within about an hour and a half you reach the lakes and forest trails of the Laurentians, with autumn colour and, in winter, cross-country skiing.

Newport's outdoors is narrower, but it has the sea. You can walk the Cliff Walk above the surf, watch kites over the ledges at Brenton Point and look for seabirds at Sachuest Point. Above all there is sailing, kayaking and autumn surf at Second Beach. The landscape is flat coast rather than hills.

Newport is better placed for outings, as long as you have a car. Providence and Bristol are close, Block Island is a ferry ride away, and New Bedford's whaling museum and the seaport museum at Mystic each make a full day on the New England shore. Boston is also within reach.

From Montreal the best day out is Ottawa by train, and the villages of the Eastern Townships and the resort village at Mont-Tremblant are gentler options. Quebec City is the trip everyone wants, but it really needs an overnight stay, which leaves fewer easy day trips.

Montreal has far more to keep children busy. The Olympic Park area groups the Biodome, the Insectarium and the Botanical Garden together, the Old Port has the Science Centre, and there is the amusement park from Expo 67 and Granby Zoo about an hour out. Deep winter is the season to avoid with small children.

Newport works for a summer beach week with young children. There is calm water at Third and Gooseberry Beaches, the carousel at Easton's Beach, the ramparts of Fort Adams and the touch tanks at Save The Bay. Its main sights are long mansion tours, though, and there is no zoo or theme park.

Montreal is the easier city without a car. The four-line metro reaches the Olympic Park and the islands, bike-share and separated lanes cover the warm months, and the underground walkways keep you out of the winter cold.

Newport's centre is small enough to walk, and buses and a summer trolley go up to the mansions. Most visitors drive in, though, and summer traffic on the narrow streets and island bridges is slow. For beaches outside town and almost every day trip you need a car.

Montreal offers shoppers far more range. Rue Sainte-Catherine has department stores and malls, the Golden Square Mile around Ogilvy has the luxury labels, and Mile End and Saint-Henri have Quebec designers and vintage shops. Maple products and ice cider make easy gifts.

In Newport, shopping is a pleasant afternoon of galleries, sailing clothes and gift shops on the wharves, plus antiques on Spring and Franklin Streets. There is no department store, and many shops cut their hours in winter.

Neither city is a bargain, but your money goes much further in Montreal. Much of its best food is casual, from bagels to market stalls, bring-your-own-wine bistros keep dinner bills down, and many summer festival concerts are free.

Newport is a costly place to stay, especially in summer and early autumn. There are few budget rooms in town, and mansion tickets, seafood dinners and parking add up. The usual ways to soften the cost are to stay in Middletown, come midweek or visit in late autumn or winter.

For live performance, Montreal is far ahead. Place des Arts is home to the symphony orchestra, the opera and Les Grands Ballets, and French-language theatre runs all year. The city is a world centre of contemporary circus, with TOHU as its own venue, and every summer the Jazz Festival turns the Quartier des Spectacles into an open-air stage.

Newport's fame in music rests on a few summer weeks: the Jazz and Folk Festivals at Fort Adams, with the harbour behind the stage, and chamber concerts in the mansion ballrooms each July. The rest of the year there are bar bands and community theatre.

Montreal has a real bathing culture of its own in the Nordic spa: hot pools, saunas and cold plunges, all year round and often in the snow. You can do the circuit on Nuns' Island, on a ferry moored in the Old Port or in the forests of the Laurentians.

Newport offers hotel spas and yoga studios. Its sense of calm comes from the sea air and a quiet Cliff Walk in late spring or early autumn, not from any spa tradition, and high summer there is anything but restful.