VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Ottawa or Santa Monica?

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
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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 Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Santa Monica 35: Ottawa leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Santa Monica 72: Santa Monica leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Santa Monica 52: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Santa Monica 14: Ottawa leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Santa Monica 38: Ottawa leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Santa Monica 45: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Santa Monica.

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 culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Santa Monica
51match

Wins on beaches and shopping 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 Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaSanta Monica

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaSanta Monica
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 m32 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaSanta Monica
City population1,017,44993,076
People per km²3664,270
Museums within 10 km2019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Monica 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.