Vancouver or Victoria?

Vancouver is the better of the two for a day by the water. English Bay, Kitsilano and the long sands of Jericho and Spanish Banks are part of the city, with volleyball, picnics and the mountains across the bay, and the saltwater pool at Kitsilano gives a real swim when the sea is too cold.

Victoria's shore is better for walking than for lying on. Dallas Road is pebble and driftwood, Willows Beach suits paddling at the edge, and the strait stays colder still, so on a hot day locals head inland to Thetis Lake or the Sooke Potholes instead.

Vancouver eats at a different level, mainly because of its Asian cooking: Cantonese dim sum and seafood houses in the city and Richmond, Taiwanese snacks, Korean barbecue, ramen and cheap, good sushi. Main Street and Commercial Drive add breweries and bakeries, and the choice runs deep.

Victoria shares the same Pacific salmon, crab and spot prawns but works with a smaller range. Its strengths are farm produce from the Saanich Peninsula and Cowichan Valley, serious brunches, brewpubs and afternoon tea at the Empress, with fish and chips at Fisherman's Wharf as the casual standby. Late-night eating and street food are thin.

The two are evenly matched and draw on the same threads, Northwest Coast First Nations art and the painter Emily Carr, but they show them differently. Vancouver's highlight is a single great museum, the Museum of Anthropology, with its glass hall of totem poles and canoes, backed by Gastown's Victorian warehouses and the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Garden in Chinatown.

Victoria's strength is the whole ensemble. The domed Parliament Buildings and the Empress frame the Inner Harbour, the Royal BC Museum and Thunderbird Park sit beside them, and Craigdarroch Castle and Fan Tan Alley are a short walk away. It feels more like a heritage town, and in both cities two or three days covers the sights.

Vancouver is no late city, but it has far more to offer after dark than Victoria. Gastown's cocktail and wine bars, the brewery taprooms east of downtown, the busy club strip on Granville Street at weekends and the gay bars of the Davie Village give real choice.

Victoria's evenings centre on the pub. British-style pubs, taprooms and a few cocktail bars around Wharf Street and Lower Johnson make for a pleasant pint, but the student clubs are small and close early, and most of the town is quiet well before midnight.

Both live close to the outdoors, but Vancouver's setting is in another league. Grouse, Cypress and Seymour rise across the harbour with forest trails in summer and lit ski runs in winter, Stanley Park's cedar forest and seawall sit beside downtown, and the Sea-to-Sky Highway leads to Squamish's climbing walls and Whistler's alpine terrain.

Victoria's nature is coastal and gentler. The Dallas Road clifftops look across to the Olympic Mountains, sheltered waters suit beginner kayakers, Goldstream has old-growth cedar and an autumn salmon run, and the Juan de Fuca coast is wild. Whale watching is easy from both, but Victoria has no high mountains nearby.

Victoria has the better list of outings, and they are closer to hand. Butchart Gardens is about half an hour away, and within an hour or so lie the bookshops of Sidney, the wineries and cideries of the Cowichan Valley, the totem poles of Duncan and the murals of Chemainus, with Salt Spring Island a ferry ride off.

From Vancouver, the best day out is Victoria itself, but with the ferry crossing and terminal journeys it makes a long day. Otherwise there is Steveston's fishing harbour, the old fort at Fort Langley and Whistler's village, a shorter and thinner choice.

Vancouver gives children more to do. Stanley Park alone holds the aquarium, a miniature train, a water park and the flat seawall for scooters, and Science World, the little False Creek ferries, the suspension bridges over North Shore canyons and the Grouse gondola fill further days.

Victoria is calm and easy, with short distances, the petting farm in Beacon Hill Park, the Royal BC Museum's replica old town and seaplanes landing in the harbour. Whale watching delights older children, but options run out sooner, especially on wet winter days.

Vancouver is the easier of the two for a car-free trip. The SkyTrain runs from the airport to downtown, the SeaBus crosses to North Vancouver, and one card covers the SkyTrain, buses and SeaBus. Kitsilano and the mountains still mean buses, though.

Victoria's centre is smaller and very easy to walk, with the harbour, museum, Chinatown and Beacon Hill Park all close together and good bike lanes. Beyond it there are only slow buses, and Sooke or the Cowichan Valley really need a car.

Vancouver has the wider range. Robson Street's flagships, the luxury houses on Alberni Street and the underground mall cover the mainstream, outdoor and athleisure clothing is a local speciality, and Main Street, Gastown and Richmond's Asian malls add independents and variety.

Victoria is small-scale and independent: the heritage storefronts of Lower Johnson Street, Market Square, second-hand bookshops and Cowichan sweaters on Government Street, with no luxury brands. In both, Northwest Coast First Nations prints and carvings are the best thing to take home.

Neither is a cheap place, but Victoria is somewhat easier on the wallet. Its compact centre keeps transport spending low, the waterfront and parks are free, and rooms get much cheaper from November to March, though whale watching, Butchart Gardens and ferries add up.

Vancouver's downtown hotels are dear, with few cheap beds near the centre, and tax and tips push meals up. The savings lie in its noodle shops, dim sum and casual sushi, and in the free pleasures of Stanley Park and the seawall.

Vancouver has the fuller calendar. The symphony plays in the ornate Orpheum, opera and Ballet BC share the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, and summer brings Bard on the Beach in Vanier Park and the folk festival on Jericho Beach, alongside touring musicals and big concerts.

Victoria offers a smaller version: the symphony and Pacific Opera at the historic Royal Theatre and McPherson Playhouse, new Canadian plays at the Belfry, and the free summer concert on a barge in the Inner Harbour. Both have a jazz festival and a Fringe, and Victoria's are on a smaller scale.

The two are much alike here: neither has hot springs or a bathing tradition, so rest comes from pace and setting more than from spas. Vancouver offers calm within a large city, with yoga studios, massage and reflexology in Chinatown and Richmond, and Nordic-style outdoor spas a drive away near Whistler.

Victoria is slow by nature, a town of gardens, long afternoon teas and seafront walks through Oak Bay and James Bay. Its waterfront resorts in Sooke and on the Saanich Peninsula suit a quieter retreat.