VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Ottawa or Thessaloniki?

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

  • wellness
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Thessaloniki leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Thessaloniki 66: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Thessaloniki 50: Ottawa leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Thessaloniki 60: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa and Thessaloniki are level on 52.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Thessaloniki 33: Ottawa leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Thessaloniki.

Your match

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

Ottawa
51match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on nightlife 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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaThessaloniki

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaThessaloniki
Official languageFrench, EnglishGreek
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation70 m6 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaThessaloniki
City population1,017,449309,617
People per km²36616,042
Museums within 10 km2032
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or Thessaloniki 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. 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.