VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Ottawa or Sao Paulo?

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

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Sao Paulo leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Sao Paulo 60: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Sao Paulo 48: Ottawa leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Sao Paulo 47: Ottawa leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Sao Paulo 52: Ottawa leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Sao Paulo 44: Ottawa leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Sao Paulo 25: Ottawa leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Ottawa
51match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on nightlife 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 recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaSao Paulo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaSao Paulo
Official languageFrench, EnglishPortuguese
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation70 m760 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaSao Paulo
City population1,017,44911,451,999
People per km²3667,519
Museums within 10 km2090
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 Sao Paulo 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.