VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
The old town below the fortress, Salzburg
SalzburgThe old town below the fortress

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Salzburg by Leonhard Niederwimmer, Pexels License.

Montpellier or Salzburg?

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 Montpellier for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Salzburg for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Salzburg’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. Montpellier 64, Salzburg 35: Montpellier leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, Salzburg 45: Montpellier leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, Salzburg 72: Salzburg leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, Salzburg 25: Montpellier leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier 72, Salzburg 86: Salzburg leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, Salzburg 80: Montpellier leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, Salzburg 65: Salzburg leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, Salzburg 72: Montpellier leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, Salzburg 48: Salzburg leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, Salzburg 32: Montpellier leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, Salzburg 80: Salzburg leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier 42, Salzburg 55: Salzburg leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montpellier and Salzburg.

Your match

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

Montpellier
Best match
62match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Salzburg
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Salzburg in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
MontpellierSalzburg

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). Salzburg: 1991-2020 normals, Salzburg (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierSalzburg
Official languageFrenchGerman, Austrian Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation7 m424 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsSalzburg Airport (SZG)3 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierSalzburg
City population310,240155,021
People per km²5,4522,360
Museums within 10 km1438
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montpellier or Salzburg 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.