VacationSelector
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

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

Montevideo or Portland?

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 Montevideo for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Portland for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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. Montevideo 55, Portland 20: Montevideo leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Montevideo 57, Portland 68: Portland leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Montevideo 54, Portland 38: Montevideo leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Montevideo 50, Portland 52: Portland leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montevideo 34, Portland 84: Portland leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Montevideo 55, Portland 58: Portland leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Montevideo and Portland are level on 55.
Getting around. Montevideo 54, Portland 62: Portland leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Montevideo 36, Portland 52: Portland leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Montevideo 42, Portland 38: Montevideo leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montevideo 57, Portland 55: Montevideo leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montevideo 38, Portland 42: Portland leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Montevideo
49match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MontevideoPortland

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontevideoPortland
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation41 m152 m
Main airportCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontevideoPortland
City population1,302,954652,503
People per km²1,7851,736
Museums within 10 km3617
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montevideo or Portland 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.