Niagara Falls or Toronto?

Neither is a beach destination, and the difference is in convenience rather than quality. Niagara Falls has no swimming in town. You drive about half an hour south to the soft sand and shallow water of Crystal Beach on Lake Erie, where the water is warmer by late summer.

Toronto's beaches are in the city itself, a short ferry ride away on the Islands or along the boardwalk at Woodbine. They also come with skyline views. Lake Ontario is cooler and less dependable, though, and a change of wind or a heavy downpour can spoil a swim.

This is one of the widest gaps between the two. In Niagara Falls, meals on Clifton Hill and the hotel strip are functional: diners, steakhouses and chains. The good eating is out in the wine country, at winery restaurants and summer fruit stands.

Toronto feeds you from its communities instead. Dim sum on Spadina, Greek food on the Danforth, roti and dumplings in the Scarborough plazas, lunch at St Lawrence Market and chef-led dining rooms on Ossington. A food lover will plan the trip around the city's neighbourhoods, not around a single wine route.

Toronto has much more to see. The Royal Ontario Museum and the Art Gallery of Ontario, with its Group of Seven rooms, are major collections. The Aga Khan and Bata Shoe museums and Casa Loma fill out two or three days, even though the old city fabric is thin.

Niagara Falls has little beyond the falls. Its heritage is power and war: the early hydroelectric stations, and Brock's Monument and the battlefield at Queenston Heights, which recall the War of 1812. Clifton Hill's wax museums are entertainment, not history.

Evenings in Niagara Falls mean watching the falls lit in colour, summer fireworks over the gorge, then the casinos or a sports bar on Clifton Hill. It is a resort strip for couples and families, and it goes quiet in winter.

Toronto has real neighbourhood scenes. Wine and cocktail bars line Ossington and Dundas West, Queen West is looser, King West has dress-up clubs, and Church Street is the gay village. Last call comes earlier than the city's size suggests, but there is far more choice.

Here Niagara Falls is well ahead. The Horseshoe Falls are a sight people cross continents for, and you can get close to them by boat or through the tunnels behind the water. Below, the gorge leads on to the Niagara Glen trails, the swirling Whirlpool and a riverside path that is a pleasure to cycle.

Toronto's nature is more modest. Its wooded ravines along the Don and the Humber, the oak savannah of High Park and the pale Scarborough Bluffs are good for a quiet escape from downtown, not for a whole trip. The rocky stretches of the escarpment are around an hour away.

Niagara Falls is the better base for excursions. Niagara-on-the-Lake and its wineries are twenty minutes along the parkway, Toronto works as a city day out, and across the border Buffalo has early skyscrapers and Frank Lloyd Wright houses. Remember your passport.

Toronto's best day trip is the long day to Niagara itself. After that, Stratford's Shakespeare season is the main draw, and Mennonite country around St Jacobs is a gentler extra.

Both work for children, but Toronto can fill a longer stay. It has a large zoo set in forested valley, the shark-tunnel aquarium beside the CN Tower, dinosaurs at the Royal Ontario Museum, Centreville on the Islands and the roller coasters of Canada's Wonderland to the north.

Niagara Falls gives children one unforgettable thing: the boats into the spray and the tunnels behind the water. Then there are the observation wheel, mini golf and arcades of Clifton Hill, the butterfly conservatory and the hotel water parks. A few days covers it, and the paid extras add up.

At Niagara Falls the part that matters is small. The promenade, the clifftop hotels and Clifton Hill are all walkable, linked by the Falls Incline Railway, and visitor buses run along the parkway to Queenston. The wineries, though, really need a car, a bike or a tour.

Toronto is easier on foot and by transit. The flat downtown grid is easy to walk, the PATH runs underground in winter, and subway lines and streetcars reach most neighbourhoods. The zoo and the suburban food plazas still take a long ride.

Toronto is the place to shop. You have the luxury boutiques of Bloor Street in Yorkville, the glass-roofed Eaton Centre and Yorkdale for big brands, and independent designers and vintage shops on Queen West, Ossington and in Kensington Market.

Niagara Falls has souvenir stalls on Clifton Hill, and its useful shopping is at the discount outlet centres on the edge of town. A bottle of icewine from the nearby wineries is the one local thing worth carrying home.

Niagara Falls is the cheaper stay, as long as you choose carefully. Rooms with a falls view are expensive in summer, but the motels on the outer strips, and almost everything in winter, cost far less. Watching the falls from the promenade is free. The boats and Clifton Hill attractions are what push the bill up.

Toronto is expensive for hotels, sit-down meals and drinks, with tax and tip on top. You save by eating in the noodle shops and food courts of the suburbs and by spending time in the ravines and on the Islands.

Toronto has a full arts calendar. Musicals play at the Royal Alexandra, the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet perform at the Four Seasons Centre, and Massey Hall and the clubs along Queen West and College host live music most nights.

Niagara Falls relies on casino tribute acts and dinner shows. Its strong card lies twenty minutes away: the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a repertory season that gives theatre lovers a good reason to stay in the area.

Neither is a place to come for wellness, and Toronto only just comes out ahead. Toronto has day spas around Yorkville and the Financial District, a few Korean-style bathhouses with saunas and hot pools in the suburbs, and quiet ravines to walk in.

Niagara Falls is loud in summer. Its calmer option is a spa treatment at a wine-country inn after a day of tastings, or the slower pace of Niagara-on-the-Lake.