VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
Mountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola, Telluride
TellurideMountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Telluride by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Ottawa or Telluride?

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

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Telluride for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Telluride’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, Telluride 5: Ottawa leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Telluride 38: Ottawa leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Telluride 20: Ottawa leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Telluride 20: Ottawa leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Telluride 93: Telluride leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Telluride 30: Ottawa leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Telluride 45: Ottawa leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Telluride 66: Telluride leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Telluride 25: Ottawa leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Telluride 7: Ottawa leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Telluride 35: Ottawa leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Telluride 45: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Telluride.

Your match

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

Ottawa
Best match
51match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Telluride
36match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around 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

Telluride in July

23 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaTelluride

Where the figures come from

Telluride 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). Telluride: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Telluride / Lime (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaTelluride
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-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation70 m2,667 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsMontrose Regional Airport (MTJ)64 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaTelluride
City population1,017,4492,607
People per km²3661,372
Museums within 10 km200
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or Telluride 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.