Portland or Tofino?

Portland's beach life is a summer affair on the rivers. There are small sandy strips in Sellwood and along the downtown waterfront, and longer ones on Sauvie Island. The Pacific at Cannon Beach is an hour and a half's drive away. Outside July and August there's little reason to think about it.

Tofino lives on its beaches. Long Beach, Chesterman and Cox Bay are minutes from town, with low-tide walks, fires on the sand and surf lessons shaping the day. Neither place offers a warm swim, though, and the ocean here calls for a thick wetsuit.

Portland has far more range. Its food cart pods run from Thai and Georgian to barbecue, and neighbourhood restaurants cook with Northwest salmon, crab and mushrooms. Craft breweries, coffee roasters and Willamette Valley pinot noir make drinking a highlight in its own right.

Tofino eats well for a small town, and its seafood comes straight from Clayoquot Sound: spot prawns, oysters and halibut, fish tacos from food trucks and a few serious tasting menus. But it's a few dozen places on one short street, and they keep shorter hours in winter.

Portland has a modest but real set of sights. The Portland Art Museum has strong Native American and Northwest collections, the Oregon Historical Society tells the story of the Oregon Trail, and Lan Su and the Japanese Garden are two outstanding gardens. Two or three days does it justice.

In Tofino, culture means Nuu-chah-nulth carving and prints in the galleries, and the story of the coast told at the Kwisitis Visitor Centre. That is an afternoon at most, and nobody comes for it.

Portland's evenings run on bars rather than clubs, and it has a great many: brewery taprooms, dive bars with pinball, cocktail bars and wine bars. Each neighbourhood strip, from Mississippi to Belmont, has its own easygoing crowd, and a night out can last a long time.

In Tofino the night is over early. A pub, a taproom and a few restaurant bars fill with surfers in summer, and most visitors are back at their cabin by a fire or in a hot tub.

Both are superb bases for the outdoors. Portland offers range: more than 110km of trails in Forest Park inside the city, and the cliffs and waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge half an hour out. Further afield are skiing and alpine hiking on Mount Hood and windsurfing at Hood River.

Tofino has the edge because the wilderness starts at the edge of town, and it's wilder. Old-growth rainforest boardwalks in Pacific Rim National Park, the giant cedars of Meares Island and the islands of Clayoquot Sound come with grey whales, bears on the shore and sea otters. Add superb sea kayaking, surfing all year and storm watching in winter.

Portland has proper outings in several directions. The wineries and small towns of the Willamette Valley are under an hour away, and Astoria has Victorian streets and a maritime museum. There's also the coast at Cannon Beach and the orchards of Hood River, all easiest by car.

Tofino offers Ucluelet's lighthouse loop down the peninsula and boat trips into the sound, and beyond that a long mountain road. Its excursions head into the landscape rather than to other places.

Portland gives children more to do whatever the weather. There are the hands-on halls and submarine at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, the zoo and playground in Washington Park, Oaks Amusement Park, and the waterfront fountains in summer. Transit is easy with a pushchair, though some families find parts of downtown uncomfortable.

Tofino is the outdoor version, in a small, safe town: tide pools, driftwood forts, beginner surf lessons and whale-spotting from a boat. Apart from the little aquarium in Ucluelet there's nothing indoors, so a rainy week can be hard going.

Portland is easy without a car in town. The MAX light rail runs from the airport, a streetcar loops through downtown and the Pearl District, and short blocks and the river bridges make walking and cycling a pleasure. The east-side neighbourhoods need a bus, and the Gorge and wine country need a car.

Tofino's village is just a few blocks, but beaches and trailheads are strung out along the highway. That means a car, or a bike on the multi-use path in dry weather. Its best outings go by water taxi, boat or floatplane.

Portland is a good shopping city for independent tastes. Powell's City of Books fills a whole block, and Mississippi, Alberta and Hawthorne have vintage and record shops. Outdoor gear from the region's sportswear brands is easy to find, and there's no sales tax.

Shopping in Tofino is a short stroll. The things worth buying are the Nuu-chah-nulth carving, silver and prints in its galleries, and beyond those it's surf shops and souvenirs.

Neither is cheap, but Portland is easier on a budget. Hotels cost what they do in most large American cities, but food carts, low transit fares and free places like Forest Park keep the days affordable. Car hire is the main extra to plan for.

Tofino adds a remote-resort premium to everything from rooms to groceries to boat tours, and summer rates are steep. Campgrounds and the stormy months from November to March soften the cost.

Portland keeps a full season going, with the Oregon Symphony in the restored Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall plus opera, ballet and theatre. Its more distinctive side is indie and folk bands playing small east-side rooms and the historic Crystal Ballroom.

Tofino has none of this, beyond an occasional band at a pub and a few summer community festivals.

Portland's kind of rest is urban and easy to fit into a day. A few soaking houses in its residential neighbourhoods offer hot tubs, saunas and cold plunges, and there are the usual hotel spas. Its natural hot springs are in the Cascade forests, two hours away by car, so getting there takes a whole day and a hire car.

Tofino does it better, because the slow pace comes with the place and its spas are in the resorts on the beach, not tucked into a city side street. Its hot springs are a day out too, but a very different one: a boat or floatplane up the coast to Maquinna Marine Provincial Park, then a forest boardwalk to pools that spill into the sea. What it lacks is any public bathing in town, so a spur-of-the-moment sauna and cold plunge is easier to find in Portland.