VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Montpellier for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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. Galway 28, Montpellier 64: Montpellier leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Montpellier 64: Montpellier leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Montpellier 60: Montpellier leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Montpellier 56: Montpellier leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Montpellier 72: Galway leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Montpellier 85: Montpellier leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Montpellier 62: Montpellier leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Montpellier 74: Montpellier leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Montpellier 47: Montpellier leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Montpellier 50: Montpellier leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Montpellier 63: Montpellier leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Montpellier 42: Montpellier leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Montpellier.

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 with your weighting.

Montpellier
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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

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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayMontpellier

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). Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayMontpellier
Official languageEnglish, IrishFrench
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation25 m7 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayMontpellier
City population83,456310,240
People per km²1,5635,452
Museums within 10 km414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Galway 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). 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.