VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Montreal for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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. Edinburgh 22, Montreal 25: Montreal leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Montreal 78: Montreal leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Montreal 60: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Montreal 75: Montreal leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Montreal 66: Edinburgh leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Montreal 55: Edinburgh leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Montreal 68: Montreal leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Montreal 72: Edinburgh leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Montreal 60: Montreal leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Montreal 45: Montreal leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Montreal 76: Montreal leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Montreal 57: Montreal leads by 23 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Montreal
Best match
61match

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.

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 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
EdinburghMontreal

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghMontreal
Official languageEnglishFrench, English
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation47 m31 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghMontreal
City population488,0501,895,211
People per km²1,8843,806
Museums within 10 km3237
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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