VacationSelector
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Ottawa or Wellington?

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
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Ottawa leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Ottawa 45, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Ottawa 62, Wellington 44: Ottawa leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Ottawa 35, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ottawa 68, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Ottawa 55, Wellington 40: Ottawa leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Ottawa 68, Wellington 62: Ottawa leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Ottawa 62, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Ottawa 40, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Ottawa 40, Wellington 33: Ottawa leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ottawa 52, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ottawa 55, Wellington 30: Ottawa leads by 25 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Ottawa
51match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on food and drink 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
OttawaWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOttawaWellington
Official languageFrench, EnglishEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number911111
Elevation70 m0 m
Main airportOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOttawaWellington
City population1,017,449216,200
People per km²366487
Museums within 10 km2012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ottawa or Wellington 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.