VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Faro 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 Faro for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Ottawa for

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

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. Faro 74, Ottawa 35: Faro leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Ottawa 45: Faro leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Ottawa 35: Ottawa leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Ottawa 55: Faro leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Ottawa 40: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, Ottawa 40: Faro leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Ottawa 52: Ottawa leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 22 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Faro
49match

Wins on beaches and prices 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.

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
FaroOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroOttawa
Official languagePortugueseFrench, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation10 m70 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroOttawa
City population64,5601,017,449
People per km²319366
Museums within 10 km220
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 Faro 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.