VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Montpellier or Shanghai?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Montpellier leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier 72, Shanghai 25: Montpellier leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier 42, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montpellier and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Montpellier
62match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on shopping and food and drink 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MontpellierShanghai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierShanghai
Official languageFrenchPutonghua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation7 m4 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierShanghai
City population310,24024,870,895
People per km²5,4523,922
Museums within 10 km1445
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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