VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Ottawa or Taipei?

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

Ottawa does not lead in any category we score.

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

Choose Taipei for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Taipei leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Taipei 68: Taipei leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Taipei 58: Taipei leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Taipei 78: Taipei leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Taipei 76: Taipei leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Taipei 72: Taipei leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Taipei 86: Taipei leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Taipei 70: Taipei leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Taipei 66: Taipei leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Taipei 55: Taipei leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Taipei 80: Taipei leads by 25 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Ottawa
51match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

Taipei
Best match
70match

Wins on food and drink and shopping 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 seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaTaipei

Where the figures come from

Taipei 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). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaTaipei
Official languageFrench, EnglishTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911110 or 112 or 119
Elevation70 m10 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaTaipei
City population1,017,4492,429,429
People per km²3668,938
Museums within 10 km2069
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 Taipei 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.