VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Montpellier or San Francisco?

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

  • beaches
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Montpellier leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier 72, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, San Francisco 72: Montpellier leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, San Francisco 70: Montpellier leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, San Francisco 14: Montpellier leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier and San Francisco are level on 42.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montpellier and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Montpellier
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Francisco
59match

Wins on food and drink and live music and the arts 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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontpellierSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierSan Francisco
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m16 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierSan Francisco
City population310,240873,965
People per km²5,4521,455
Museums within 10 km1451
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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