VacationSelector
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montevideo or Riga?

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
  • food and drink
  • families

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

Choose Riga for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Montevideo leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Montevideo 57, Riga 52: Montevideo leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Montevideo 54, Riga 66: Riga leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Montevideo 50, Riga 52: Riga leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montevideo 34, Riga 55: Riga leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Montevideo 55, Riga 60: Riga leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montevideo 55, Riga 50: Montevideo leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Montevideo 54, Riga 68: Riga leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Montevideo 36, Riga 45: Riga leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Montevideo 42, Riga 62: Riga leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montevideo 57, Riga 65: Riga leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montevideo 38, Riga 50: Riga leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Montevideo
49match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Riga
Best match
55match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices 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

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontevideoRiga

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontevideoRiga
Official language-Latvian
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation41 m6 m
Main airportCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMontevideoRiga
City population1,302,954588,911
People per km²1,785-
Museums within 10 km3612
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montevideo or Riga 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.