VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Ottawa or Rome?

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

  • families
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Rome for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Rome’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, Rome 50: Rome leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Rome 82: Rome leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Rome 99: Rome leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Rome 58: Rome leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Rome 58: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Rome 92: Rome leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Rome 50: Ottawa leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Rome 60: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Rome 72: Rome leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Rome 38: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Rome 68: Rome leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Rome 40: Ottawa leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Rome.

Your match

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

Ottawa
51match

Wins on families and wellness with your weighting.

Rome
Best match
64match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights 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 recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Rome in July

31 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaRome

Where the figures come from

Rome's sunshine is measured 31 km from the centre, at Vigna Di Valle.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaRome
Official languageFrench, EnglishItalian
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation70 m21 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaRome
City population1,017,4492,748,109
People per km²3662,135
Museums within 10 km20178
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km17
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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