VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
Half-timbered houses on the canal, Petite France, Strasbourg
StrasbourgHalf-timbered houses on the canal, Petite France

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Strasbourg by Edoardo Colombo, Pexels License.

Ottawa or Strasbourg?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Strasbourg for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Strasbourg’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, Strasbourg 10: Ottawa leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Strasbourg 66: Strasbourg leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Strasbourg 70: Strasbourg leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Strasbourg 40: Strasbourg leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Strasbourg 62: Ottawa leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Strasbourg 80: Strasbourg leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Strasbourg 66: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Strasbourg 79: Strasbourg leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Strasbourg 52: Strasbourg leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Strasbourg 44: Strasbourg leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Strasbourg 56: Strasbourg leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa and Strasbourg are level on 55.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Strasbourg.

Your match

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

Ottawa
51match

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

Strasbourg
Best match
57match

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
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Strasbourg in July

26 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
72 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaStrasbourg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Strasbourg: 1991-2020 normals, Strasbourg (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaStrasbourg
Official languageFrench, EnglishFrench
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation70 m132 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsStrasbourg Airport (SXB)10 km from centre43 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaStrasbourg
City population1,017,449293,771
People per km²3663,752
Museums within 10 km2021
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or Strasbourg 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.