VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

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

Ottawa or Santiago?

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

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Santiago for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Ottawa leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Santiago 52: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Santiago 70: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Santiago 57: Ottawa leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Santiago 68: Santiago leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Santiago 58: Santiago leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Santiago 55: Santiago leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Santiago 37: Ottawa leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Santiago.

Your match

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

Ottawa
51match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Santiago
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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
15 hdaylight a day

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaSantiago

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaSantiago
Official languageFrench, EnglishSpanish
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency number911Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation70 m575 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaSantiago
City population1,017,4496,257,516
People per km²3667,468
Museums within 10 km2054
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 Santiago 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.