VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Lisbon 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 Lisbon for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Montpellier for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • wellness

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. Lisbon 50, Montpellier 64: Montpellier leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Montpellier 64: Lisbon leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Montpellier 60: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Montpellier 56: Lisbon leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Montpellier 72: Lisbon leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Montpellier 85: Montpellier leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Lisbon and Montpellier are level on 62.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Montpellier 74: Montpellier leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Montpellier 47: Lisbon leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Montpellier 50: Lisbon leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Montpellier 63: Montpellier leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Montpellier 42: Montpellier leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

Montpellier
62match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonMontpellier

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonMontpellier
Official languagePortugueseFrench
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation100 m7 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonMontpellier
City population545,796310,240
People per km²5,4535,452
Museums within 10 km8014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Lisbon 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.