VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Montevideo for

  • beaches
  • wellness

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. Madrid 5, Montevideo 55: Montevideo leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Montevideo 57: Madrid leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Montevideo 54: Madrid leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Montevideo 50: Madrid leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Montevideo 34: Madrid leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Montevideo 55: Madrid leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Montevideo 55: Madrid leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Montevideo 54: Madrid leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Montevideo 36: Madrid leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Montevideo 42: Madrid leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Montevideo 57: Madrid leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Montevideo 38: Montevideo leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on shopping and nightlife with your weighting.

Montevideo
49match

Wins on beaches 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.

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MadridMontevideo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridMontevideo
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112911
Elevation663 m41 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridMontevideo
City population3,506,7301,302,954
People per km²5,8011,785
Museums within 10 km8836
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.