VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
St. Petersburg, Florida

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Ottawa or St. Petersburg, Florida?

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

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose St. Petersburg, Florida for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Petersburg, Florida’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, St. Petersburg, Florida 85: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, St. Petersburg, Florida 44: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, St. Petersburg, Florida 58: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Ottawa and St. Petersburg, Florida are level on 55.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, St. Petersburg, Florida 70: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, St. Petersburg, Florida 33: Ottawa leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, St. Petersburg, Florida 38: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, St. Petersburg, Florida 35: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, St. Petersburg, Florida 42: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, St. Petersburg, Florida 40: Ottawa leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Ottawa
51match

Wins on getting around and wellness with your weighting.

St. Petersburg, Florida
50match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

St. Petersburg, Florida in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaSt. Petersburg, Florida

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). St. Petersburg, Florida: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaSt. Petersburg, Florida
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-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation70 m134 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)16 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaSt. Petersburg, Florida
City population1,017,449258,308
People per km²366725
Museums within 10 km2013
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or St. Petersburg, Florida 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.