VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Ottawa or Palm Beach?

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 Ottawa for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Beach’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. Ottawa 35, Palm Beach 82: Palm Beach leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Palm Beach 47: Palm Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Palm Beach 45: Ottawa leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Palm Beach 32: Ottawa leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Palm Beach 58: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Ottawa and Palm Beach are level on 55.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Palm Beach 62: Ottawa leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Palm Beach 32: Ottawa leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Palm Beach 66: Palm Beach leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Palm Beach 12: Ottawa leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Palm Beach 45: Ottawa leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa and Palm Beach are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Palm Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Ottawa
51match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

Palm Beach
49match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ottawa in July

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

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaPalm Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaPalm Beach
Official languageFrench, English-
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation70 m2 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaPalm Beach
City population1,017,4499,245
People per km²366322
Museums within 10 km204
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or Palm Beach 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.