VacationSelector

Kathmandu or Ottawa?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
Kathmandu

Photo: Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
Ottawa

Photo: Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

Your match

Kathmandu
48
match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Ottawa
✓ Best match
51
match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

KathmanduOttawa
Beaches & swimming. Ottawa leads by 31 points.31
Food & drink. Kathmandu leads by 10 points.10
Culture & sights. Kathmandu leads by 20 points.20
Nightlife. Kathmandu leads by 1 points.1
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 2 points.2
Day trips. Kathmandu leads by 1 points.1
Good for families. Ottawa leads by 48 points.48
Getting around. Ottawa leads by 37 points.37
Shopping & style. Kathmandu leads by 15 points.15
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 57 points.57
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa leads by 24 points.24
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa leads by 10 points.10
0255075100

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

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyKathmanduOttawa
Daytime high29 °C27 °C
Night-time low20 °C16 °C
Rainfall in the month384 mm82 mm
Sunshine4 hours a dayNo figure
Daylight14 hours a day15 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Kathmandu
19
22
26
29
29
29
29
29
28
27
23
20
Ottawa
-5
-3
3
11
19
24
27
26
22
14
6
-2
Rainfall, mm
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Ottawa
60
53
56
74
66
87
82
89
78
94
59
80
Daylight, hours per day
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Ottawa
9
10
12
14
15
16
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7
Ottawa
No sunshine record

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduOttawa
Official languageNepaliFrench, English
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101911
Elevation1,300 m70 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduOttawa
City population845,7671,017,449
People per km²17,121366
Museums within 10 km920
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu 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. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.