Visitor or student visa

I’m thinking of stepping out of the country for a while.

Which is better?

Plan 1)Get a study visa or a visiting visa. I plan to say about 6 or so months.

Plan 2)I have an ARC and it has about a month to run. I would have just enough time
to reprocess and sign on again with my school when I got back.

I pretty much understand plan 2)

To do plan 1) I would need to cancel my ARC and leave . Thats ok I’m
leaving next week. If I just wanna stay another 6 months which one would you
choose (student or visitor)? Will the ARC termination register pretty much straight away so
that the officials in the other country can start processing my new visa?