VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
Château Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace, Quebec City
Quebec CityChâteau Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Quebec City by Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Galway or Quebec City?

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

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Quebec City for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Quebec City’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, Quebec City 18: Galway leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Quebec City 57: Quebec City leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Quebec City 70: Quebec City leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Quebec City 42: Galway leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Quebec City 79: Quebec City leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Quebec City 58: Quebec City leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Quebec City 64: Quebec City leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Quebec City 50: Galway leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Quebec City 45: Quebec City leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Quebec City 45: Quebec City leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Quebec City 52: Galway leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Quebec City 55: Quebec City leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Quebec City.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Quebec City
Best match
53match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness 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

Quebec City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayQuebec City

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). Quebec City: 1991-2020 normals, Beauport (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayQuebec City
Official languageEnglish, IrishFrench, English
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation25 m98 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsQuebec Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB)13 km from centre34 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayQuebec City
City population83,456574,482
People per km²1,5631,184
Museums within 10 km416
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway or Quebec City 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.