VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • families

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. Lima 42, Ottawa 35: Lima leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Ottawa 45: Lima leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Ottawa 62: Lima leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Ottawa 35: Lima leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Ottawa 40: Lima leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, Ottawa 40: Lima leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Ottawa 52: Lima leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Lima
51match

Wins on food and drink and prices with your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
LimaOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaOttawa
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaFrench, English
CurrencySol (PEN)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation154 m70 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaOttawa
City population9,943,8001,017,449
People per km²3,721366
Museums within 10 km4720
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lima 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). 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.