VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Hiroshima 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 Hiroshima for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Hiroshima 30, Ottawa 35: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, Ottawa 45: Hiroshima leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, Ottawa 35: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, Ottawa 55: Hiroshima leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, Ottawa 62: Hiroshima leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, Ottawa 40: Hiroshima leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, Ottawa 40: Hiroshima leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, Ottawa 52: Ottawa leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 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: Hiroshima and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaOttawa
Official languageJapaneseFrench, English
CurrencyYen (JPY)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation3 m70 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaOttawa
City population1,198,0211,017,449
People per km²1,324366
Museums within 10 km1820
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hiroshima or Ottawa somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.