Ottawa or Paris?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
Wins on museums & heritage and nightlife with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Ottawa and Paris are level on 0.
| Ottawa | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 9 | 2 |
| Coast distance | 423 km | 149 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Paris leads by 26 points.26
| Ottawa | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 90 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 684 | 4,732 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 34 | 33 |
Museums & heritage. Paris leads by 44 points.44
| Ottawa | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 76 |
| Museums within 10 km | 15 | 185 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 8 | 65 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 53 | 35 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 4 |
Nightlife. Paris leads by 44 points.44
| Ottawa | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 88 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 432 | 3,796 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 303 | 1,694 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 70 | 45 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 35 | 201 |
Nature & day trips. Paris leads by 7 points.7
| Ottawa | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 41 | 48 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 8 | 28 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 26 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 122 hectares | 82 hectares |
Good for families. Paris leads by 29 points.29
| Ottawa | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 89 |
| Park area within 2 km | 122 hectares | 82 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Paris leads by 44 points.44
| Ottawa | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 94 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 71 | 865 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Paris leads by 8 points.8
| Ottawa | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 62 |
| Price level global | 84 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | — | €160 |
Year-round weather. Paris leads by 13 points.13
| Ottawa | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 66 |
| Monthly daytime high | -4.9 °C to 27 °C | 7.8 °C to 26 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 53 mm to 94 mm | 38 mm to 75 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
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. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Ottawa | Paris |
|---|---|---|
| MontrealYUL, YHU, YMX | 50 m no fares YOW · 12 km | 7 h 10 m €444-536 CDG · 22 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 5 m no fares YOW · 12 km | 7 h 45 m €445-510 1 stop CDG · 22 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 1 h 20 m no fares YOW · 12 km | 7 h 30 m €579-648 1 stop CDG · 22 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 6 h 55 m no fares YOW · 12 km | 1 h 5 m €63-103 CDG · 22 km |
| CancunCUN | 4 h 5 m no fares YOW · 12 km | 10 h 20 m no fares CDG · 22 km |
| Punta CanaPUJ | 4 h 15 m no fares YOW · 12 km | 9 h 0 m no fares ORY · 14 km |
| CalgaryYYC | 4 h 5 m no fares YOW · 12 km | 9 h 20 m no fares CDG · 22 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 1 h 55 m no fares YOW · 12 km | 8 h 30 m no fares CDG · 22 km |
| VancouverYVR, YDT | 4 h 50 m €175-263 2 stops YOW · 12 km | 10 h 0 m no fares CDG · 22 km |
| OrlandoMCO, SFB, ORL | 2 h 55 m no fares YOW · 12 km | 9 h 10 m no fares CDG · 22 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 | Ottawa | Paris |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, English | French |
| Currency | Canadian Dollar (CAD) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | CE230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 112 |
| Elevation | 70 m | 27 m |
| Main airport | Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations | Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Ottawa | Paris |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,017,449 | 2,103,778 |
| People per km² | 366 | 19,960 |
| Museums within 10 km | 20 | 251 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 62 | 169 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or Paris somewhere new.