VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Lisbon 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 Lisbon for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • wellness
  • 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. Lisbon 50, Ottawa 35: Lisbon leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Ottawa 45: Lisbon leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Ottawa 62: Lisbon leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Ottawa 35: Lisbon leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Ottawa 68: Lisbon leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Ottawa 55: Lisbon leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Ottawa 62: Lisbon leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Ottawa 40: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Ottawa 40: Lisbon leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Ottawa 52: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 19 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

Wins on wellness 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.

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 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
LisbonOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonOttawa
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
Elevation100 m70 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonOttawa
City population545,7961,017,449
People per km²5,453366
Museums within 10 km8020
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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