VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Ottawa or Washington DC?

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
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Ottawa leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Washington DC 64: Ottawa leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Washington DC 28: Ottawa leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Washington DC 26: Ottawa leads by 29 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Ottawa
51match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Washington DC
Best match
56match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights 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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaWashington DC

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaWashington DC
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-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation70 m72 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaWashington DC
City population1,017,449689,545
People per km²3663,896
Museums within 10 km2098
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

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