VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

New York 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 New York for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. New York 50, Ottawa 35: New York leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, Ottawa 45: New York leads by 47 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, Ottawa 62: New York leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, Ottawa 35: New York leads by 62 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 13 points.
Day trips. New York 68, Ottawa 55: New York leads by 13 points.
Good for families. New York 70, Ottawa 68: New York leads by 2 points.
Getting around. New York 82, Ottawa 62: New York leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, Ottawa 40: New York leads by 57 points.
Affordability. New York 12, Ottawa 40: Ottawa leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, Ottawa 52: New York leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 42, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 13 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
New YorkOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkOttawa
Official language-French, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation25 m70 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkOttawa
City population8,804,1901,017,449
People per km²7,256366
Museums within 10 km15720
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New York 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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.