VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Ottawa or Sydney?

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

  • prices
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Sydney 60: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Sydney 50: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Sydney 22: Ottawa leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa and Sydney are level on 55.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Sydney.

Your match

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

Ottawa
51match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches 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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaSydney

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaSydney
Official languageFrench, EnglishEnglish
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation70 m6 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaSydney
City population1,017,4495,450,496
People per km²366449
Museums within 10 km2038
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

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