VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Montpellier 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 Montpellier for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • wellness
  • families
  • culture and sights

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. Montpellier 64, Ottawa 35: Montpellier leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, Ottawa 45: Montpellier leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, Ottawa 35: Montpellier leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier 72, Ottawa 68: Montpellier leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, Ottawa 55: Montpellier leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, Ottawa 62: Montpellier leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, Ottawa 40: Montpellier leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, Ottawa 40: Montpellier leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, Ottawa 52: Montpellier leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier 42, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montpellier and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Montpellier
Best match
62match

Wins on day trips and beaches 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.

Montpellier in July

30 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
17 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
21 °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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MontpellierOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierOttawa
Official languageFrenchFrench, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m70 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierOttawa
City population310,2401,017,449
People per km²5,452366
Museums within 10 km1420
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 Montpellier 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.