VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Ottawa or San Jose?

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
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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, San Jose 30: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, San Jose 56: San Jose leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, San Jose 36: Ottawa leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, San Jose 33: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, San Jose 65: Ottawa leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, San Jose 30: Ottawa leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, San Jose 20: Ottawa leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, San Jose 38: Ottawa leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, San Jose 30: Ottawa leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and San Jose.

Your match

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

Ottawa
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips 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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaSan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaSan Jose
City population1,017,4491,013,240
People per km²3662,167
Museums within 10 km2019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or San Jose 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.