Montreal or Ottawa?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and year-round weather with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Montreal if evenings matter: more places to drink and dance, more restaurants near the centre and a wider spread of kitchens, plus more to see on foot around the centre.
Choose Ottawa if you want countryside within reach and a drier trip: 8% of the surrounding land is protected against 2%, with a UNESCO-listed place within day-trip range and less rain in most months.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Montreal and Ottawa are level on 0.
| Montreal | Ottawa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 7 | 9 |
| Coast distance | 276 km | 423 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Montreal leads by 10 points.10
| Montreal | Ottawa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 64 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,016 | 684 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 49 | 34 |
Museums & heritage. Montreal leads by 5 points.5
| Montreal | Ottawa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 37 | 32 |
| Museums within 10 km | 39 | 15 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 19 | 8 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 49 | 53 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
Nightlife. Montreal leads by 18 points.18
| Montreal | Ottawa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 44 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,012 | 432 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 493 | 303 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 49 | 70 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 74 | 35 |
Nature & day trips. Ottawa leads by 5 points.5
| Montreal | Ottawa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 41 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 2 | 8 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 189 hectares | 122 hectares |
Good for families. Montreal leads by 4 points.4
| Montreal | Ottawa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 46 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 11 |
| Park area within 2 km | 189 hectares | 122 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Montreal leads by 6 points.6
| Montreal | Ottawa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 50 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 98 | 71 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Montreal and Ottawa are level on 54.
| Montreal | Ottawa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84 | 84 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Ottawa leads by 3 points.3
| Montreal | Ottawa | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | -3.5 °C to 26.5 °C | -4.9 °C to 27 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 69 mm to 121 mm | 53 mm to 94 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Montreal has about twice as many places to drink and twice as many nightclubs, though only about half are near the centre. It also has somewhat more restaurants, a wider range of kitchens, about three times as many museums, and more notable places within walking distance.
Ottawa's advantage lies outside the city: 8% of the surrounding land is protected against 2% around Montreal, and 1 UNESCO-listed place lies within day-trip reach where Montreal has none. Its nightlife is smaller, but most of it sits near the centre.
Where they are alike
Neither city is a swimming destination. Ottawa counts 9 beaches nearby and Montreal 7, but neither has a month of water at 21°C or more, so these are places for a warm afternoon rather than a beach holiday.
The rest of the overlap is in the calendar and in family travel: both peak at 27°C in July, both fall below freezing in January, and each has 1 theme park within reach plus a similar spread of attractions near the centre.
Which traveller are you?
If your trip is built around eating and evenings out, take Montreal: more restaurants near the centre, a wider range of kitchens, and roughly twice the drinking venues and nightclubs, though half of them sit outside the central area.
If you want forest and water within a day's drive, take Ottawa: 8% of the surrounding land is protected against 2%, and 1 UNESCO-listed place lies within day-trip reach.
Families will find the two close. Each has 1 theme park within reach and a similar number of attractions near the centre, but Montreal's extra park space and tighter cluster of sights make walking days easier.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure here is a national price level, identical for both cities by construction, so it says nothing about which of the two costs more. There is also no daily budget figure for either, so no cost comparison between them is possible at all; check accommodation and eating out yourself.
On weather, the sunshine figure is missing for Ottawa because no nearby station records it, so that side of the comparison is unmeasured rather than weak, and the monthly picture rests on temperature and rainfall. The beach counts, 9 and 7, describe places by the water, not swimming: neither reaches 21°C in the water in any month.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).
Montreal is at its best in July and August, at 26-27°C, though August brings 109mm of rain and summer is the wettest part of its year. Late winter is marginally Montreal's, with both cities at -3-3°C in February and March.
Ottawa is the better pick from May to September: the same 24-27°C highs, but less rain throughout, 66mm in May and 82mm in July against Montreal's 89mm and 98mm. April splits them hardest, 74mm against 121mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Montreal | Ottawa |
|---|---|---|
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 15 m €133-276 YUL · 16 km | 1 h 5 m no fares YOW · 12 km |
| CancunCUN | 4 h 10 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 4 h 5 m no fares YOW · 12 km |
| Punta CanaPUJ | 4 h 15 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 4 h 15 m no fares YOW · 12 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 1 h 20 m €231-372 1 stop YUL · 16 km | 1 h 20 m no fares YOW · 12 km |
| QuebecYQB | 55 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 1 h 5 m no fares YOW · 12 km |
| CalgaryYYC | 4 h 10 m €208-313 YUL · 16 km | 4 h 5 m no fares YOW · 12 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 5 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 1 h 55 m no fares YOW · 12 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 6 h 50 m €447-599 1 stop YUL · 16 km | 6 h 55 m no fares YOW · 12 km |
| VancouverYVR, YDT | 5 h 0 m €190-216 2 stops YUL · 16 km | 4 h 50 m €175-263 2 stops YOW · 12 km |
| Fort LauderdaleFLL, FXE | 3 h 15 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 3 h 15 m no fares YOW · 12 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Montreal | Ottawa |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, English | French, English |
| Currency | Canadian Dollar (CAD) | Canadian Dollar (CAD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 31 m | 70 m |
| Main airport | Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre164 non-stop destinations | Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Montreal | Ottawa |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,895,211 | 1,017,449 |
| People per km² | 3,806 | 366 |
| Museums within 10 km | 37 | 20 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 97 | 62 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montreal or Ottawa somewhere new.