VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Ottawa or Valencia?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Valencia for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Valencia 60: Ottawa leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Valencia 70: Valencia leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Valencia 55: Valencia leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Valencia 42: Ottawa leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ottawa and Valencia.

Your match

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

Ottawa
51match

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

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaValencia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaValencia
Official languageFrench, EnglishSpanish
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation70 m15 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaValencia
City population1,017,449840,792
People per km²3666,242
Museums within 10 km2045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Valencia 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.