VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Muscat 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 Muscat for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • 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. Muscat 72, Ottawa 35: Muscat leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Ottawa 45: Ottawa leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Ottawa 35: Ottawa leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Ottawa 68: Muscat leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Ottawa 55: Muscat leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Ottawa 40: Muscat leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, Ottawa 40: Muscat leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Ottawa 52: Ottawa leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat and Ottawa are level on 55.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Muscat
48match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Ottawa
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
13 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MuscatOttawa

Where the figures come from

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMuscatOttawa
Official languageArabicFrench, English
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number968911
Elevation69 m70 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMuscatOttawa
City population1,421,4091,017,449
People per km²406366
Museums within 10 km1020
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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

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.