Montreal or Ottawa?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Ottawa swims better. Its real asset is Gatineau Park, where Meech Lake and Lac Philippe are clear, forest-ringed lakes a short drive from downtown. It also has four supervised river beaches inside the city, though these close after heavy rain.

Montreal makes do with the filtered lake beach at Parc Jean-Drapeau, which is crowded on hot weekends, and a small river beach at Verdun. For a proper sandy shore you have to drive about an hour to Oka.

This is the clearest gap between the two. Montreal has a food identity of its own: wood-fired bagels, smoked meat, poutine and spring sugar-shack feasts, on top of a French-rooted bistro culture and two big produce markets. Its Plateau and Little Italy restaurants are reason enough to book a trip.

Ottawa eats well enough, with shawarma from its Lebanese community, the cinnamon-sugar pastries of the ByWard Market and decent bistros in the Glebe. For Québécois cooking, though, it sends you across the river to Gatineau, and there is no food scene to plan a trip around.

The two are evenly matched but different in kind. Montreal's heritage is something you walk through: the grey-stone streets of Old Montreal running down to the port, the gilded blue interior of Notre-Dame Basilica, and the archaeology at Pointe-à-Callière, with the Museum of Fine Arts as its main collection.

Ottawa's strength is its national institutions. It has the National Gallery, the Museum of History with its totem poles, and the war and nature museums, set around the Gothic Revival Parliament and the UNESCO-listed Rideau Canal. Museum-goers will find more to fill their days in Ottawa, while those who prefer old streets will prefer Montreal.

Montreal is one of the latest-running cities in North America. Bars serve until 3am every night of the week, Boulevard Saint-Laurent strings cocktail bars and clubs from the Plateau to downtown, and the Village has large gay clubs. In summer there are after-hours electronic parties and terraces on the pedestrianised streets.

Ottawa is quieter. The ByWard Market and Elgin Street fill with pubs and a few clubs at weekends, but weekdays are calm, and late drinkers cross the bridge to Gatineau because bars there close later.

Both are strong for the outdoors, with the same blazing autumn colour, but the landscape sits in different places. Montreal has its wooded mountain right beside downtown, cycling along the Lachine Canal and even river surfing below the rapids. Its bigger wild country, in the Laurentians and the Eastern Townships, is about an hour and a half away.

Ottawa has wilderness on its doorstep. The trails, lakes and ridges of Gatineau Park begin just across the river, the cross-country ski network is huge, and the Rideau Canal freezes into a skating route nearly 8km long.

Each city is the other's best day out, since the train between them takes about two hours. From Montreal, the other easy outings are the Loyalist villages and covered bridges of the Eastern Townships and the resort village at Mont-Tremblant. Quebec City is better done as an overnight stay.

From Ottawa, Kingston and the Thousand Islands are the main alternative, with Upper Canada Village on the way. Smaller lock towns such as Merrickville, Wakefield in the Gatineau Hills and the log château at Montebello make gentler outings.

Both are safe and easy with children, and they entertain them in different ways. Montreal leans towards living attractions and rides: the Biodome and Insectarium at the Olympic Park, the lantern-lit Botanical Garden, the Expo 67 amusement park and the Granby Zoo an hour away.

Ottawa's national museums are its playground. There are the dinosaurs at the Museum of Nature, hands-on science, an aircraft hangar and the Children's Museum, plus the summer changing of the guard. It has no zoo or theme park, though, so for animals you drive out to Parc Omega.

Montreal is the easier city to get around. Its four-line metro reaches the main sights, the Olympic Park and the river islands, and in winter the underground network lets you cross downtown without going outside.

Ottawa's core around Parliament, the market and the canal is small enough to walk, and its river and canal paths are excellent for cycling. Beyond that, though, there is one light rail line and patchy bus service, and the aviation and science museums take a bus or taxi to reach.

Montreal offers much more. Rue Sainte-Catherine has the department stores and malls, many linked underground, and the Golden Square Mile around Ogilvy provides the luxury end. Mile End, the Plateau and Saint-Henri add Quebec designers, vintage clothing and record shops.

Ottawa's shopping is practical: the Rideau Centre, souvenir shops on Sparks Street, and independent bookshops and boutiques in the Glebe and Wellington West. Both are good for maple products and Indigenous art, but Ottawa has no luxury street.

Neither is cheap, and they cost roughly the same once tax and tip are added to every restaurant bill. The savings come in different forms. In Montreal, the best eating is casual, bring-your-own-wine restaurants keep the drinks bill down, many summer festival concerts are free, and winter is the cheapest season.

In Ottawa, Parliament tours are free, some national museums have free hours, and hotels often drop at weekends when government travel stops. Meals in Gatineau tend to cost a little less.

Montreal has the bigger stage. Place des Arts houses the symphony, the opera and Les Grands Ballets, and there is a large French-language theatre scene. The National Circus School and TOHU make acrobatic shows a local speciality, and the Jazz Festival, held every summer since 1980, fills the Quartier des Spectacles with free concerts.

Ottawa has a solid centre in the National Arts Centre, with its orchestra and theatre companies in English, French and Indigenous languages. Its high points are summer festivals such as Bluesfest and Chamberfest, and on most weeknights there is little live music.

Both cities share Quebec's Nordic spa ritual of hot pools, saunas and cold plunges, often taken in the snow. What differs is the setting. In Montreal you can do the circuit in town, on Nuns' Island or aboard a ferry moored in the Old Port, with bigger forest spas in the Laurentians an hour north.

Ottawa's spa is in the woods at Chelsea, about fifteen minutes away. The city itself is calmer, with quiet riverside walks, whereas Montreal relaxes in a more social way, with terraces and picnics in Parc La Fontaine.