VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro, Paris
ParisThe Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Paris by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Ottawa or Paris?

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

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Paris for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Paris’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, Paris 9: Ottawa leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Paris 96: Paris leads by 51 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Paris 97: Paris leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Paris 80: Paris leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Paris 52: Ottawa leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Paris 92: Paris leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Paris 79: Paris leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Paris 88: Paris leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Paris 98: Paris leads by 58 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Paris 25: Ottawa leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Paris 88: Paris leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Paris 40: Ottawa leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Paris.

Your match

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

Ottawa
51match

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

Paris
Best match
70match

Wins on shopping and food and drink 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
15 hdaylight a day

Paris in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaParis

Temperature and rainfall are 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).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaParis
Official languageFrench, EnglishFrench
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation70 m27 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsCharles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaParis
City population1,017,4492,103,778
People per km²36619,960
Museums within 10 km20251
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or Paris 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.