VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bergen or Montpellier?

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 Bergen for

  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Montpellier for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Montpellier’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. Bergen 20, Montpellier 64: Montpellier leads by 44 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, Montpellier 64: Montpellier leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, Montpellier 60: Montpellier leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, Montpellier 56: Montpellier leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, Montpellier 72: Bergen leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Bergen 38, Montpellier 85: Montpellier leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Bergen 60, Montpellier 62: Montpellier leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Bergen and Montpellier are level on 74.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, Montpellier 47: Montpellier leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, Montpellier 50: Montpellier leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, Montpellier 63: Montpellier leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, Montpellier 42: Montpellier leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bergen and Montpellier.

Your match

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

Bergen
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Montpellier
Best match
62match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bergen in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Montpellier in July

30 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
17 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BergenMontpellier

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenMontpellier
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiFrench
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110112
Elevation5 m7 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenMontpellier
City population291,189310,240
People per km²3,3395,452
Museums within 10 km3114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bergen or Montpellier 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). 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. 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.