VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Newport Beach 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 Newport Beach for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • day trips

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • prices

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. Newport Beach 70, Ottawa 35: Newport Beach leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Ottawa 45: Newport Beach leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Ottawa 35: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Ottawa 55: Newport Beach leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Ottawa 68: Newport Beach leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Ottawa 40: Newport Beach leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Ottawa 40: Ottawa leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Ottawa 52: Ottawa leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Newport Beach and Ottawa.

Your match

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

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

Ottawa
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachOttawa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachOttawa
Official language-French, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation3 m70 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachOttawa
City population85,2391,017,449
People per km²622366
Museums within 10 km420
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Newport Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.