VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • 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. Johannesburg 5, Ottawa 35: Ottawa leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Ottawa 45: Johannesburg leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Ottawa 35: Johannesburg leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Ottawa 40: Johannesburg leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Ottawa 40: Johannesburg leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Ottawa 52: Johannesburg leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Ottawa
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around 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.

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgOttawa
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageFrench, English
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation1,753 m70 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgOttawa
City population4,803,2621,017,449
People per km²2,922366
Museums within 10 km1420
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Johannesburg 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.