VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Barcelona or Montreal?

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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Montreal for

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Montreal’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. Barcelona 75, Montreal 25: Barcelona leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Montreal 78: Barcelona leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Montreal 60: Barcelona leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Montreal 75: Barcelona leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Montreal 66: Barcelona leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Montreal 55: Barcelona leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Montreal 68: Barcelona leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Montreal 72: Barcelona leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Montreal 60: Barcelona leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Montreal 45: Montreal leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Montreal 76: Montreal leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Montreal 57: Montreal leads by 19 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Montreal
61match

Wins on wellness and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Montreal in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
98 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaMontreal

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaMontreal
Official languageSpanishFrench, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation9 m31 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaMontreal
City population1,731,6491,895,211
People per km²17,0943,806
Museums within 10 km9537
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona or Montreal 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.