VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The County Courthouse and its garden, Santa Barbara
Santa BarbaraThe County Courthouse and its garden

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santa Barbara by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Ottawa or Santa Barbara?

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

  • prices
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santa Barbara for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Barbara’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, Santa Barbara 60: Santa Barbara leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Santa Barbara 62: Santa Barbara leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Santa Barbara 48: Ottawa leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Santa Barbara 34: Ottawa leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Santa Barbara 80: Santa Barbara leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Ottawa and Santa Barbara are level on 55.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Santa Barbara 64: Ottawa leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Santa Barbara 46: Ottawa leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Santa Barbara 45: Santa Barbara leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Santa Barbara 15: Ottawa leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Santa Barbara 50: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Santa Barbara 50: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Santa Barbara.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Ottawa
51match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Santa Barbara
51match

Wins on beaches 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

Santa Barbara in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
18 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaSanta Barbara

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Santa Barbara: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Barbara / La Patera (11.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaSanta Barbara
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 m15 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsSanta Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA)12 km from centre13 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaSanta Barbara
City population1,017,44988,665
People per km²366816
Museums within 10 km2010
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 Santa Barbara 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.