VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Aspen 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 Aspen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • beaches

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. Aspen 6, Ottawa 35: Ottawa leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Aspen and Ottawa are level on 45.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Ottawa 35: Aspen leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Ottawa 68: Aspen leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Ottawa 62: Aspen leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Ottawa 40: Aspen leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Ottawa 40: Ottawa leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Ottawa 52: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Aspen
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Ottawa
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AspenOttawa

Where the figures come from

Aspen has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenOttawa
Official language-French, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,405 m70 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenOttawa
City population7,0041,017,449
People per km²700366
Museums within 10 km220
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aspen 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.