Portland, Maine or Quebec City?

Neither city is a beach destination, but Portland at least has proper sand close by. Crescent Beach, Higgins Beach and Pine Point lie within half an hour, and Old Orchard Beach adds a pier and arcades. The cold Gulf of Maine means beach days there are more for walking and wading than for swimming.

Quebec City's river is tidal and fast, and the Baie de Beauport beach is for volleyball and sunbathing. For a real swim you drive to the lakes north of town, which are warmer than Portland's sea but only for a short summer window.

Portland eats better, and its strength is the sea. Lobster rolls and steamers at harbour shacks, oysters from the Damariscotta River and chowder are the core, backed by chef-run kitchens, good bakeries and a dense brewery scene in East Bayside and along Industrial Way.

Quebec City's cooking is heartier and more tied to the seasons: tourtière, pea soup, poutine and maple, with sugar-shack feasts in early spring. Its best tables are the bistros of Saint-Roch and Saint-Jean-Baptiste, which use Île d'Orléans and Charlevoix produce. Inside the walls, though, set menus aimed at visitors are uneven.

Here Quebec City is in another league. Its walls still stand around upper and lower towns that hold the Château Frontenac, the star-shaped Citadelle, Place Royale and four centuries of convents and churches. The Plains of Abraham, where New France was lost in 1759, lead to the provincial fine arts museum.

Portland's equivalent is the brick Old Port rebuilt after the fire of 1866, a museum of art with a fine Winslow Homer holding, Longfellow's childhood home and Victoria Mansion. Those are pleasant sights, but they fill a day or two, not a whole visit.

Nights out are much alike: bars and taprooms rather than clubs in both. Portland's are packed into the Old Port along Fore and Wharf Streets, with quieter wine bars on Munjoy Hill, and last orders at 1am keep evenings fairly early.

Quebec City spreads out more and runs later. The terraces of the Grande Allée are louder, the pubs of Rue Saint-Jean draw a student crowd, and Saint-Roch is where locals drink cocktails.

Quebec City has the bigger landscapes. Montmorency Falls, higher than Niagara, is a quarter of an hour away. The glacial valley of Jacques-Cartier national park and ski hills such as Le Massif are within an hour, and winter brings cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and ice canoeing.

Portland's outdoors happens on the water instead. You can take ferries to Peaks and Chebeague, sea kayaks, schooners and whale-watching trips out of the harbour, or walk the clifftops at Two Lights. For real mountains it is about two hours to the White Mountains.

Both have a good handful of outings, and both work best with a car, but the outings are different in character. From Portland you follow the coast from one harbour town to the next: Ogunquit's cliff path, Kennebunkport, colonial Portsmouth to the south, then Bath's shipyards and Camden's windjammers to the north.

From Quebec City the trips are more rural and more about heritage. There is the farm road around the Île d'Orléans, the pilgrimage basilica at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, the Huron-Wendat community at Wendake and the gallery village of Baie-Saint-Paul.

Quebec City gives children more. It has an aquarium with polar bears and walruses, the cable car and zip lines at Montmorency Falls, and a forest water park that turns into tube runs in winter. The carnival and the Dufferin Terrace toboggan slide make it one of the few places where a family winter visit works.

Portland is easy but small. The children's museum, the island ferries, the tide pools at Fort Williams and the amusements at Old Orchard Beach make a good summer week, but there is no zoo or aquarium, and outside summer there is little for families.

Both are walking cities with steep streets and only buses for public transport. Portland's peninsula is compact and easy, with Casco Bay ferries and the train to Boston on hand, but its buses are of little use to visitors, so the beaches and Portland Head Light really need a car.

Quebec City's challenge is its cliff, crossed by the Breakneck Stairs or the funicular and icy in winter. Its express buses serve the centre better and even reach Montmorency Falls.

Both offer small-scale, independent shopping with no luxury labels, and the difference is in what you take home. Portland's Old Port boutiques sell Maine pottery, woollens and art, and the outlet town of Freeport nearby is the place for outdoor clothing and gear.

Quebec City is about crafts and food. Workshops and milliners line Petit-Champlain and antiques fill Rue Saint-Paul, while the market supplies maple, ice cider and Québécois cheeses, and the galleries sell Inuit and First Nations art.

Quebec City stretches a budget noticeably further. Its best sights, the walls, the Dufferin Terrace, the Plains of Abraham and the basilica, cost nothing, rooms in Saint-Roch are good value, and set lunches keep meals down, though tax and tip add to every bill.

Portland charges big-city rates for summer rooms on the peninsula, and the lobster and oysters that draw people there are costly. Seafood shacks, brewery food trucks and visiting outside peak season are the main ways to save.

Quebec City has the fuller stage. The Grand Théâtre is home to Canada's oldest symphony orchestra and an opera company, and Robert Lepage's Le Diamant puts on experimental work. In July the Festival d'été fills the Plains of Abraham with international bands. Most theatre is in French.

Portland offers a solid evening rather than a season to plan around. The symphony plays at Merrill Auditorium, Portland Stage puts on professional theatre, and touring bands and folk acts come to the State Theatre, all in English.

Quebec City has a real bathing tradition in the Nordic spa: outdoor hot pools, saunas and cold plunges, several within half an hour around Lac-Beauport and one in the old port. They are at their best in snow.

Portland has only hotel and day spas, so unwinding there means a slow ferry ride to a quiet island, a dusk walk on the Eastern Promenade or a long waterside lunch.