Ottawa or Quebec City?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Ottawa gives you the better swim. Its sandy river beaches at Mooney's Bay and Petrie Island are inside the city. Better still are the clear, forest-ringed lakes of Gatineau Park, such as Meech Lake, which are only a short way from downtown and a degree or two warmer.

In Quebec City the St Lawrence is too cold and fast for real swimming, so the Baie de Beauport is for sunbathing and volleyball. A proper swim means driving north to Lac Saint-Joseph or Lac-Beauport. In both cities the season runs only from late June through August.

Quebec City is the better place to eat. Its cooking is rooted in French-Canadian tradition and in produce from the Île d'Orléans and Charlevoix. Between the bistros of Saint-Roch and Saint-Jean-Baptiste, the Marché du Vieux-Port and the local ice ciders, food can easily be a theme of the trip, though many restaurants inside the walls serve uneven set menus for tourists.

Ottawa offers more range but less character: food stalls in the ByWard Market, Lebanese shawarma, and Little Italy and Chinatown on Preston and Somerset Streets. For Québécois cooking you cross the bridge to Gatineau. Both cities share the maple feasts of the sugar-shack season.

Ottawa's strength lies in its museums rather than its streets. The National Gallery, the Museum of History with its hall of totem poles, and the War Museum add up to a deeper collection than Quebec City's two main museums. Parliament Hill and the hand-operated locks of the Rideau Canal are fine landmarks, but beyond that core the city is low-rise and modern.

Quebec City still has the more memorable sightseeing, because the city itself is the main sight. Its walls are still standing, and up on the clifftop the star-shaped Citadelle and the Château Frontenac rise above the Dufferin Terrace. Below the cliff are the old stone houses of Place Royale and Petit-Champlain, and along the top the Plains of Abraham tell the story of 1759.

Neither city is known for its nights out, but Quebec City has the livelier evenings and later closing times. There are summer terraces on the Grande Allée, taprooms and student bars along Rue Saint-Jean, and wine and cocktail bars in Saint-Roch, though few clubs.

Ottawa's pubs and patios on Elgin Street and around the ByWard Market close earlier, which is why late crowds cross the river to Gatineau. In both cities, winter weeknights go quiet early.

Quebec City has grander outdoors close at hand. Montmorency Falls is about 15 minutes away, Jacques-Cartier national park offers canoeing and moose in a deep glacial valley, and there is real downhill skiing at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Stoneham and Le Massif, whose runs seem to drop into the river.

Ottawa's outdoors are gentler and even closer. Gatineau Park's trails and lookouts start just across the river, its groomed cross-country network is huge, and the canal and riverside paths are superb for cycling. Skating the frozen canal in winter is a real highlight, but for big scenery and slopes, Quebec City goes further.

The two are evenly matched for day trips, but the trips are of different kinds. Ottawa's best days out are to other cities: Montreal is about two hours by train, and Kingston and the Thousand Islands are a similar drive. Canal towns such as Merrickville and Perth make quieter stops.

Quebec City's outings are rural and close by: the farms and cideries of the Île d'Orléans, twenty minutes away, the shrine at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, the Huron-Wendat community at Wendake, and the galleries of Baie-Saint-Paul. Almost all of these need a car, whereas Ottawa's best outing, Montreal, does not.

Both cities are safe and easy with children, but each appeals in its own way. Ottawa is the indoor option, with dinosaurs at the Museum of Nature, hands-on science exhibits, a hangar full of aircraft and the Children's Museum, all reached on flatter, easier streets.

Quebec City is better for animals and outdoor play: polar bears and walruses at the aquarium, the toboggan slide on the Dufferin Terrace, a forest water and snow park, and zip lines at Montmorency Falls. Its stairways and steep hills are hard going with a pushchair.

Ottawa is the easier city to get around. The centre is flat and walkable, the Museum of History is a stroll across a bridge, and a light rail line crosses the city. In summer, the cycle paths and bike-share make getting about a pleasure.

Quebec City's sights are just as close together, but a cliff divides them. Getting between the upper and lower towns means the Breakneck Stairs, steep streets or the funicular, and in winter ice makes these hard work. There are only buses, and the parks, ski hills and Île d'Orléans really call for a car.

Neither city is a shopping destination, and neither has a luxury street. Quebec City's shopping has more atmosphere, with craft workshops and milliners in Petit-Champlain, antiques on Rue Saint-Paul and market cheeses to take home. Ottawa's is more practical: the Rideau Centre mall, Indigenous galleries around the ByWard Market, and independent bookshops and boutiques in the Glebe and Wellington West.

Costs are broadly similar, with Quebec City slightly easier on the wallet, and in both cities sales tax and the tip push up every restaurant bill. Ottawa's savings come from free Parliament tours, free museum hours and cheaper weekend hotel rooms once government travel drops off. In Quebec City, walks on the walls and the Plains of Abraham cost nothing, and staying in Saint-Roch or Sainte-Foy rather than inside the walls saves a good deal.

The two are evenly matched for live performance, and both peak in summer with a big outdoor music festival: Bluesfest at LeBreton Flats and the Festival d'été on the Plains of Abraham.

The difference is language and repertoire. Ottawa's National Arts Centre has English, French and Indigenous theatre companies, and the city also hosts Chamberfest. Quebec City has Canada's oldest symphony orchestra, an opera company and Robert Lepage's Le Diamant, but most of its theatre is in French.

Both cities offer the same great pleasure, the outdoor Nordic spa, which is at its best in deep winter when steam rises into falling snow. Ottawa has one large complex in the woods at Chelsea, about fifteen minutes away. In Quebec City the habit is more deeply rooted, with several spas around Lac-Beauport and along the river and one in the old port itself.