VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • beaches

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • 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. Colombo 55, Ottawa 35: Colombo leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Ottawa 45: Colombo leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Colombo and Ottawa are level on 35.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Ottawa 40: Colombo leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Ottawa 40: Colombo leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Ottawa 52: Ottawa leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Ottawa
Best match
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboOttawa
Official languageTamil, SinhalaFrench, English
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation1 m70 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboOttawa
City population647,5571,017,449
People per km²17,361366
Museums within 10 km1020
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.