VacationSelector
Titanic Belfast, Belfast
BelfastTitanic Belfast
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Belfast by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Belfast 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 Belfast for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • families

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. Belfast 20, Ottawa 35: Ottawa leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Belfast 50, Ottawa 45: Belfast leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Belfast 55, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Belfast 50, Ottawa 35: Belfast leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Belfast 74, Ottawa 68: Belfast leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Belfast 66, Ottawa 55: Belfast leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Belfast 58, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Belfast and Ottawa are level on 62.
Shopping & style. Belfast 45, Ottawa 40: Belfast leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Belfast 48, Ottawa 40: Belfast leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Belfast 55, Ottawa 52: Belfast leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Belfast 25, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Belfast and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Belfast
51match

Wins on nightlife and day trips with your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Belfast in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
17 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
BelfastOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Belfast: 1991-2020 normals, Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (19.4 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBelfastOttawa
Official languageEnglishFrench, English
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation3 m70 m
Main airportGeorge Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)4 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBelfastOttawa
City population345,0061,017,449
People per km²3,000366
Museums within 10 km820
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Belfast 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.