Pāramitāyāna and Tantrayāna Wikipedia includes this (unreferenced) sentence:


  According to the perspective of Tibetan Buddhism, Mahāyāna practitioners have the choice of two practice paths: the path of perfection (Sanskrit: pāramitāyāna) or the path of tantra (Sanskrit: tantrayāna), which is the Vajrayāna.


Would you say a bit more about that (for someone who hasn't been taught Mahāyāna practice or Tibetan Buddhism)?

For example, some related questions include:


Is the quoted sentence more-or-less true?
Is this a good high-level view of (introduction to, or taxonomy of) Tibetan Buddhism?
What are pāramitāyāna and tantrayāna:


What is the goal of each?
What is the purpose of each (do they tend toward the goal)?
What (or how) is the practice of each (how, for example, is the purpose implemented)?

To what extent is it true that "practitioners have the choice"? On what basis should or do they choose (e.g. which practice path is suited for, or available to, what practitioners)?
The quote is more or less true. The position that Tibetan Buddhism distinguishes between pāramitāyāna and tantrayāna is accurate. Pāramitāyāna is most often translated 'perfection vehicle' or 'sutra vehicle' while tantrayāna is usually translated as 'tantra vehicle' or 'secret mantra vehicle'.

In the Middle Length Lam-Rim, Tsongkhapa says:


  [Atisha] held numerous lineages of masters such as the two lineages of
  the common vehicle and of the great vehicle, with regard to which
  there are the two – (1) the perfection and (2) secret mantra [vehicles]. In
  the perfection vehicle he held three lineages: the lineages of the
  view and of conduct, the latter of which has the lineage from Maitreya
  and the lineage from Manjugosha. In the secret mantra he had received
  five types of transmission as well as numerous lineages such as the
  lineage of teaching systems,[tenets] the lineage of blessings, and the
  lineage of various instructions.


In this context, 'common vehicle' refer to:


  a lineage common to the Hinayana and Mahayana


As Geshe Jampa Gyatso phrases it in his commentary to Tsonkghapa's Middle-Length Lam Rim. These refer to the teachings and practices 'common to beings of small capacity' (wishing for a precious human rebirth) as well as those 'common to beings of middling capacity' (wishing for abiding-nirvana, individual liberation). One might say that, of these two, only the linage common to beings of middling capacity is a fully qualified path, because a path is found in the continuum of a practitioner generating effortless, renounciation, that is 'a mind of definite emergence from samsara'.

'Great vehicle' refers to the practices exclusive to 'beings of great capacities' (those wishing for perfect buddhahood, that is non-abiding nirvana, freedom from both afflictive and knowledge-obscurations). The entrance to the Mahayana path is effortless renounciation + uncontrived bodhicitta (whether it be aspirational or engaged).

Within this category of teachings [of the great vehicle] you have indeed the two 'vehicles' or 'lineages':


Perfection vehicle
Secret mantra vehicle


As Geshe Jampa Gyatso writes:


  The lineage of the Mahayana has two: (1) the perfection vehicle and (2) the
  vajra vehicle. In the perfection vehicle there is also two: (1) the
  lineage of the view and (2) the lineage of the conduct or the lineage of
  the vast. One lineage was passed on from Buddha Shakyamuni to
  Maitreya, to Asanga, to Vasubandhu, to Arya Vimuktisena, and so forth.
  The other was passed from Buddha Shakyamuni to Manjushri and so forth.
  In the secret mantra lineage there are five lineages. There is also
  the lineage of tenets, the lineage of blessings, and the lineage of
  instructions.
  As both 'vehicles' are Mahayana, they serve the same purpose: causing one to achieve enlightenment in order [for him] to benefit all sentient beings. Prasangika-Madhyamika claim that one has to come to practice tantrayana/secret mantra vehicle to achieve full enlightenment (and could not get pass the tenth bhumi without it). This is merely because the secret mantra vehicle purifies one's mind all the way through.


The perfection vehicle includes what we call 'the linage of the view and that of the conduct' or 'the profound and the vast' or 'wisdom and method' or 'the view of dependent-arising and great compassion'. It is so significant that, as Geluk students, teachers often say to us "if anyone asks you what Buddhism is all about, answer that it is about the view and the conduct: the meaning of dependent arising on one side, great compassion on the other".

Furthermore, we claim that a path is entered upon generating definite emergence. That a path of the perfection vehicle is entered upon generating bohdicitta as well (because it is a Mahayana path), and that the tantra path is entered upon generating renounciation + bodhicitta (becaus it is a Mahayana path) + realization of emptiness (whether it be inferential or direct, although this is a subject of debate). It does not mean you can not engage in tantric practices such as, say, Medicine Buddha Puja, or Guru Yoga, and so forth before having realized emptiness. On the contrary, we claim that engaging in those will get you plant the seeds you need to come to be able to actually practice tantra. You can not practice it unless you had a transmission or at least a permission from a qualified teacher, though.

There are four degrees of Tantra, but I will not go into that. This being said, Tantra has to do with understanding that one's aggregates are created by karma, it is playing with 'pure view' and the notion the behind the veil of the two obscurations, phenomena are naturally pure (as in 'abiding in natural nirvana'), and it encourages us to 'take the result as the path' as the Sayka emphasize very much (they call it Lam-Ré). This 'taking the result as the path' can take the aspect of self-generation visualizations (you generate yourself in the aspect of this or that deity manifesting from emptiness).

There are differences in tenets between tantra and sutras as well. The notion of 'subtle wind that goes from one life to the next' is hardly a notion of the perfection vehicle.