VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Galway or Montevideo?

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 Galway for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Montevideo for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Montevideo’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. Galway 28, Montevideo 55: Montevideo leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Montevideo 57: Montevideo leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Montevideo 54: Montevideo leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Galway and Montevideo are level on 50.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Montevideo 34: Galway leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Montevideo 55: Galway leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Montevideo 55: Montevideo leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Montevideo 54: Galway leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Montevideo 36: Galway leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Montevideo 42: Montevideo leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway and Montevideo are level on 57.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Montevideo 38: Montevideo leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Montevideo
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches 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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayMontevideo

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayMontevideo
Official languageEnglish, Irish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112911
Elevation25 m41 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayMontevideo
City population83,4561,302,954
People per km²1,5631,785
Museums within 10 km436
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway or Montevideo 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.