Ottawa or Stowe?

Neither place has a sea, but Ottawa is the easier one for a summer swim. It has supervised, sandy river beaches inside the city at Mooney's Bay, Westboro, Britannia and Petrie Island, and the clear lakes of Gatineau Park, such as Meech Lake and Lac Philippe, are a short drive away.

Stowe's swimming means rocky holes in the mountain streams, or the small unguarded beaches on Waterbury Reservoir and Lake Elmore, each about half an hour away by car. In both places the season runs from late June to about the end of August, so a swim is a summer extra rather than a reason to choose either.

Neither is a food destination, and the difference is mainly in what kind of eating you get. Ottawa offers more range: the stalls and restaurants of the ByWard Market, shawarma from its Lebanese community, Preston Street and Somerset Street, and Québécois cooking and maple-syrup feasts at the sugar shacks across the river in Gatineau.

Stowe's strength is what grows and brews around it. Vermont's sought-after hazy IPAs, farm cheddar, cider doughnuts and farm-to-table dining rooms along Mountain Road make up for the small choice, although that choice shrinks further in the quiet spring and late-autumn weeks.

This is where the two differ most. As the national capital, Ottawa has the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of History with its hall of totem poles, the War Museum and the Museum of Nature, along with the Gothic Revival Parliament buildings and the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Stowe offers a pretty New England village with a white church steeple and covered bridges, a small ski and snowboard museum, and the von Trapp family's hillside estate. It is a pleasant backdrop, not a programme of sightseeing.

Ottawa is no party city, but it does have a night out: pubs and a few dance clubs around the ByWard Market, a long strip of bars on Elgin Street, and later closing just over the bridge in Gatineau.

Stowe's evenings revolve around après-ski, with crowded base-lodge bars and brewery taprooms in peak ski weeks and a band now and then on Mountain Road. There are no clubs, it is quiet after midnight, and for anything livelier people drive to Burlington.

Stowe is built around its landscape. Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak at 1,339m, rises straight above the valley and has full downhill skiing, glades and backcountry routes. In summer it offers the Long Trail, the boulder-filled pass of Smugglers' Notch, waterfalls and purpose-built mountain-bike trails.

Ottawa's outdoors are gentler but still very good for a capital. Gatineau Park has forest trails, lakes and cross-country skiing, and the city adds riverside cycling paths, an 8km skating route on the frozen canal and whitewater rafting upstream. Both are superb for autumn colour in early October.

Ottawa has the stronger outings, led by Montreal, about two hours away by train. Kingston, the Thousand Islands and Upper Canada Village make a good day to the west, and the canal towns of Merrickville and Perth are closer still.

From Stowe every trip means driving. Burlington on Lake Champlain and the Shelburne Museum, with its village of historic buildings and lake steamboat, are the best of them, and Montpelier's gold-domed statehouse is half an hour away. These are pleasant small towns, without a big city to match Montreal.

Ottawa has more to keep children busy, especially indoors. There are dinosaurs at the Museum of Nature, hands-on exhibits at the Science and Technology Museum, aircraft at the Aviation and Space Museum and the Children's Museum inside the Museum of History, which is a real advantage on a frozen or rainy day.

Stowe suits active families: a large ski school with gentle beginner slopes, a resort built for children beyond Smugglers' Notch, and sugarhouses and a flat riverside path in summer. Every outing needs the car, though, and there is nothing laid on for bad weather.

In Ottawa, Parliament Hill, the ByWard Market, the National Gallery and the canal are all close enough to walk between, and the Museum of History is just over the Alexandra Bridge. Light rail, buses and a bike-share system cover most of the rest, so a car is only needed for the far side of Gatineau Park.

Stowe stretches about 11km along one valley road. Beyond the walkable village, the riverside path and the winter shuttle, you need a car for trailheads and nearby towns, and for steep, icy roads in winter.

Ottawa offers more, though it is still no shopping destination. The Rideau Centre has the chains, the ByWard Market has Indigenous art galleries and independent shops, and Bank Street in the Glebe and Wellington West have bookshops and boutiques.

Stowe is mostly ski and outdoor shops, galleries, pottery and wool. In both places, maple syrup is the obvious thing to bring home, and in Stowe Vermont cheddar joins it.

Ottawa is the cheaper of the two by some distance. Downtown hotels drop at weekends when government travel stops, Parliament tours and some museum hours are free, and walking, cycling or skating the canal costs nothing. Expect sales tax and tips on restaurant bills, and alcohol is expensive.

Stowe is priced as a major ski resort. Lodging, lift tickets, equipment rental and resort dining all add up, especially over the winter school vacations and the foliage weeks. Valley motels and the shoulder months of spring and November are the way to keep costs down.

Ottawa has a real arts season. The National Arts Centre houses an orchestra and resident English, French and Indigenous theatre companies, and summer brings Bluesfest on LeBreton Flats, a jazz festival and Chamberfest.

Stowe's programme is small and tied to the seasons: touring acts at the arts centre at the base of Spruce Peak, summer community theatre, and outdoor hillside concerts that carry on the von Trapp musical tradition. For orchestras, people from Stowe have to go to Burlington.

The two are broadly level, but they offer different ways to unwind. From Ottawa, you can take a day out at the large outdoor Nordic spa in Chelsea, about fifteen minutes away, moving between hot pools, saunas and cold plunges in the woods. Back in town, the calm comes from long walks by the river and canal.

In Stowe, the whole stay is the rest. Several resorts have full spas with heated outdoor pools facing the mountain, and the country inns, wood fires and quiet valley evenings are the reason couples come for spa weekends.