VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Ottawa or Portland?

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

  • culture and sights
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Portland for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Ottawa leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Portland 68: Portland leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Portland 38: Ottawa leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Portland 52: Portland leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Portland 84: Portland leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Portland 58: Portland leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Portland 55: Ottawa leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Ottawa and Portland are level on 62.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Portland 52: Portland leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Portland 38: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Portland 55: Portland leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Portland 42: Ottawa leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Portland.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Ottawa
51match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches with your weighting.

Portland
52match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife 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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaPortland

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaPortland
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-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation70 m152 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaPortland
City population1,017,449652,503
People per km²3661,736
Museums within 10 km2017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or Portland 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. 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.