VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

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

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • food and drink

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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. Biarritz 68, Ottawa 35: Biarritz leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Ottawa 45: Biarritz leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Ottawa 35: Biarritz leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Ottawa 68: Biarritz leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Ottawa 55: Biarritz leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Ottawa 40: Biarritz leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Ottawa 40: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Ottawa 52: Ottawa leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Ottawa 55: Biarritz leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BiarritzOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzOttawa
Official languageFrenchFrench, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m70 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzOttawa
City population26,2061,017,449
People per km²2,240366
Museums within 10 km820
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.