VacationSelector
The Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens, Adelaide
AdelaideThe Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Adelaide by Ardash Muradian, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Adelaide or Ottawa?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Adelaide for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Adelaide’s own page.

Choose Ottawa for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Ottawa’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Adelaide 68, Ottawa 35: Adelaide leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Adelaide 72, Ottawa 45: Adelaide leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Adelaide 48, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Adelaide 42, Ottawa 35: Adelaide leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Adelaide 66, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Adelaide 60, Ottawa 55: Adelaide leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Adelaide 70, Ottawa 68: Adelaide leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Adelaide 57, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Adelaide 44, Ottawa 40: Adelaide leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Adelaide and Ottawa are level on 40.
Live music & performing arts. Adelaide 63, Ottawa 52: Adelaide leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Adelaide 42, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Adelaide and Ottawa.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Adelaide
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Adelaide in July

16 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
72 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AdelaideOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Adelaide: 1991-2020 normals, Adelaide (West Terrace / ngayirdapira) (3.1 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAdelaideOttawa
Official languageEnglishFrench, English
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9:30, UTC+10:30 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation1 m70 m
Main airportAdelaide International Airport (ADL)6 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAdelaideOttawa
City population1,387,2901,017,449
People per km²1,071366
Museums within 10 km1320
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Adelaide or Ottawa somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.