VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Ottawa or Siena?

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

  • families
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Siena’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, Siena 14: Ottawa leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Siena 62: Siena leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Siena 78: Siena leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Siena 27: Ottawa leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Siena 65: Ottawa leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Siena 94: Siena leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Siena 38: Ottawa leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Siena 60: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Siena 35: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Siena 42: Siena leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Siena 36: Ottawa leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa and Siena are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Siena.

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 families and beaches with your weighting.

Siena
51match

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
15 hdaylight a day

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaSiena

Where the figures come from

Siena's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Arezzo.

Siena has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaSiena
Official languageFrench, EnglishItalian
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation70 m322 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaSiena
City population1,017,44952,812
People per km²366446
Museums within 10 km2030
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or Siena 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.