Tofino or Victoria?

Tofino has much the better shoreline. The 16km of Long Beach, the sandbar out to Frank Island at Chesterman and the steady surf at Cox Bay make the beach the centre of each day, even if you only walk it. Victoria has pleasant strolls at Willows Beach and Gonzales Bay, but Dallas Road is pebble and driftwood.

Neither is a place for swimming. In Tofino you go into the water in a thick wetsuit with a surfboard. In Victoria, locals who want a swim on a hot day head inland to Thetis Lake or the Sooke Potholes.

Both kitchens draw on the same cold-water seafood: spot prawns, Dungeness crab, salmon and oysters. Victoria has more depth. Produce from the Saanich Peninsula and the Cowichan Valley, a serious brunch habit, afternoon tea at the Empress, fish and chips at Fisherman's Wharf and Canada's oldest Chinatown give you far more choice over several days.

Tofino's food trucks, ocean-view seafood rooms and West Coast tasting menus are impressive for a village, but there are only a few dozen places to eat, and many cut their hours sharply in the wet winter.

In Tofino, culture means the living Nuu-chah-nulth presence: carving and print galleries, totem and canoe carving you may see in progress, and the Kwisitis Visitor Centre at Wickaninnish Beach. An afternoon covers it.

Victoria has enough for two or three full days. The domed Parliament Buildings and the Empress face each other across the Inner Harbour, the Royal BC Museum and Thunderbird Park cover First Nations history in depth, and Craigdarroch Castle, Fan Tan Alley and the Emily Carr House fill in the rest.

Neither town is a place for late nights, but Victoria at least gives you a night out. Its British-style pubs, taprooms and a few good cocktail bars sit in old brick buildings around Wharf Street and Lower Johnson, and students keep a small club scene going at weekends.

In Tofino the evening is a brewery taproom, a restaurant bar or a fire on the beach, with an early night before the morning tide.

Tofino is the wilder of the two and the stronger by some way. Clayoquot Sound is a UNESCO biosphere reserve of islands and ancient rainforest, and from town you can kayak among its islands, watch bears on the shoreline at low tide, surf all year and watch Pacific storms in winter.

Victoria's outdoors is gentler and starts at the edge of downtown. You can walk the Dallas Road clifftops facing the Olympic Mountains, cycle the Galloping Goose trail, see the autumn salmon run and its eagles at Goldstream, and hike the coast at East Sooke. Kayaking in its sheltered waters is easy for beginners, and the drier climate means you get wet far less often.

Tofino is a place you stay put in. Ucluelet's lighthouse loop fills half a day, the boat trips are outings into the landscape rather than to other towns, and everything else lies over a long, winding mountain road.

Victoria has plenty within reach. You can visit Butchart Gardens, the bookshops of Sidney, the wineries and cideries of the Cowichan Valley, the murals at Chemainus and the Saturday market on Salt Spring Island, and the floatplane puts Vancouver a short hop away. Ferries make most outings longer than the map suggests.

Victoria is the easier city with children. Beacon Hill Park has a petting farm and playgrounds, the replica old town at the Royal BC Museum and Miniature World help on wet days, and the seaplanes and harbour ferries keep children entertained without trying.

Tofino suits active children in summer, with tide pools, driftwood forts, beginner surf lessons and beach cabins. It has very little to fall back on when the rain sets in, though, and the mountain road in is hard on young passengers.

In Tofino a car is close to essential. The beaches, trailheads and resorts are strung along the highway south of the village, and the best outings to Meares Island or Hot Springs Cove go by water taxi or floatplane. The paved path towards the national park is a pleasure to cycle in dry weather.

Victoria's sights sit within a twenty-minute walk of each other, with protected bike lanes and little harbour ferries to fill the gaps. You only need a car for Sooke, the Juan de Fuca coast or the Cowichan Valley.

Both towns are good for Northwest Coast First Nations carving, prints and silver jewellery, and in Tofino the Nuu-chah-nulth galleries are really the only reason to shop. Beyond them you find surf shops and a few beach-town boutiques.

Victoria has more to explore. Lower Johnson Street's heritage storefronts hold local labels and design shops, Market Square and Chinatown add small shops and tea and curio stores, and the second-hand bookshops and Cowichan sweaters give you things to take home.

Neither is cheap, but Tofino is the harder on your budget. Rooms are scarce, and groceries, meals and boat tours all cost more because everything comes in over the mountains. Campgrounds and the free beaches and trails are the main ways to save.

In Victoria the summer hotel rates hurt, but meals cost about what they do in other Canadian cities and the compact centre means you spend little on transport. Pub food and Chinatown's cheaper restaurants also help. In both places, rooms cost much less from November to March.

Tofino has no theatre or regular venue. You might catch the odd band at a pub or brewery, or a performance at a small community festival in summer.

Victoria fills its evenings properly for a city of its size. The historic Royal Theatre and McPherson Playhouse host the symphony, opera and ballet, the Belfry stages contemporary Canadian theatre in a converted church, and summer brings the jazz and Fringe festivals and the symphony's free concert on a barge in the harbour.

Tofino has a slight edge, mainly because of Hot Springs Cove, where geothermal water runs through rock pools into the sea at the end of a boat ride and a forest boardwalk. Resort spas use local seaweed and cedar, and an evening in a cabin hot tub is a normal end to the day.

Victoria's calm is that of a polite, garden-filled city: afternoon tea, morning walks along the seafront and quiet days in Oak Bay or James Bay. It has no thermal water, so for spa treatments you go to the harbour hotels or a few day spas.