VacationSelector
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Montevideo or Rotterdam?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotterdam’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, Rotterdam 27: Montevideo leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Montevideo 57, Rotterdam 52: Montevideo leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Montevideo 54, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Montevideo 50, Rotterdam 52: Rotterdam leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montevideo 34, Rotterdam 44: Rotterdam leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Montevideo 55, Rotterdam 85: Rotterdam leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Montevideo 55, Rotterdam 66: Rotterdam leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Montevideo 54, Rotterdam 78: Rotterdam leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Montevideo 36, Rotterdam 55: Rotterdam leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Montevideo 42, Rotterdam 38: Montevideo leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montevideo 57, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montevideo 38, Rotterdam 42: Rotterdam leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Rotterdam
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips 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.

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

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontevideoRotterdam

Where the figures come from

Rotterdam 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.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontevideoRotterdam
Official language-Dutch
CurrencyPeso Uruguayo (UYU)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFIL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation41 m10 m
Main airportCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontevideoRotterdam
City population1,302,954664,311
People per km²1,7852,080
Museums within 10 km3640
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
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 Rotterdam 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.