Montpellier or Turin?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage and nightlife with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Montpellier if the sea is part of the plan. It has 8 beaches within reach, water at 22°C in August, warmer and drier summers, and more protected countryside around it for days out.
Choose Turin if you want a dense city break. It has many times as many museums, clustered near the centre, far more places to drink, and more of note within walking distance of where you sleep.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Montpellier leads by 32 points.32
| Montpellier | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 2 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 8 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 9 km | 105 km |
| Water distance | 9 km | — |
Places to eat. Montpellier leads by 1 points.1
| Montpellier | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 64 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 737 | 1,198 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 34 | 21 |
Museums & heritage. Turin leads by 42 points.42
| Montpellier | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 26 | 68 |
| Museums within 10 km | 14 | 65 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 3 | 39 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 21 | 60 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
Nightlife. Turin leads by 28 points.28
| Montpellier | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 66 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 318 | 1,375 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 265 | 768 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 83 | 56 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 25 | 57 |
Nature & day trips. Montpellier leads by 10 points.10
| Montpellier | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 33 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 15 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 10 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 70 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 55 hectares | 72 hectares |
Good for families. Turin leads by 9 points.9
| Montpellier | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 53 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 8 | 36 |
| Park area within 2 km | 55 hectares | 72 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 7 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Turin leads by 17 points.17
| Montpellier | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 55 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 35 | 92 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Turin leads by 6 points.6
| Montpellier | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 68 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Montpellier leads by 10 points.10
| Montpellier | Turin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 12 °C to 29.6 °C | 7.1 °C to 28.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 17 mm to 93 mm | 44 mm to 127 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 0 |
Where they differ
Montpellier has the coast: 8 beaches nearby against Turin's 1, and two months when the sea sits at 21°C or more, which Turin has none of. Its nightlife is the smaller of the two, but nearly all of it sits near the centre, so an evening needs no planning.
Turin has many times as many museums, packed tightly around the centre, and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Montpellier's 2. It also has many times as many places to drink, though about half of them lie away from the centre.
Where they are alike
Food is the axis on which they are closest. Turin has about twice as many restaurants near the centre; Montpellier's are fewer but cover a much wider range of kitchens, so both give you plenty within walking distance.
Beyond that, the national daily budget estimates sit close, at €160 and €155. Both give families somewhere to go, Turin through attractions and park space near the centre, Montpellier through 7 theme parks within reach, and both have open country nearby, more of it protected around Montpellier.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone travelling for the water should take Montpellier: 8 beaches within reach and sea at 22°C in August, against a single beach and no warm-sea month in Turin.
Museum-minded travellers belong in Turin, which has many times as many and keeps them close to the centre, with 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach and a denser core to cover on foot.
Families divide. Turin has far more attractions and park space near the centre, good for short days out; Montpellier answers with 7 theme parks within reach and the beaches, so the children's ages decide it.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €160 and €155, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of either city. A large or heavily visited city can sit further from its own national average than these two figures sit from each other, so neither counts as the cheaper trip on this evidence.
No weather station near Turin records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and its monthly ratings rest on temperature and rainfall alone. Montpellier's strongest months are also its warmest and driest, which is when its 8 beaches draw the most people, and the data does not show crowding.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). Turin: 1991-2020 normals, Torino / Caselle (15.4 km from centre).
Montpellier is at its best from June to August, with highs of 27-30°C, sea at 22°C in August and only 17mm of rain in July. September and October turn wet, at 88mm and 93mm, while the water stays swimmable.
Turin's window is narrower. July and August bring 28-29°C, with 57mm and 83mm of rain, while May, September, October and November each pass 100mm, so both shoulder seasons are wetter there than in Montpellier.
Getting there
| Flying from | Montpellier | Turin |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 25 m no fares MPL · 8 km | 1 h 20 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 45 m no fares MPL · 8 km | 1 h 45 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| BordeauxBOD | 1 h 15 m no fares MRS · 109 km | 1 h 35 m no fares MXP · 103 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 35 m no fares MRS · 109 km | 1 h 55 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 35 m no fares MRS · 109 km | 1 h 15 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 30 m no fares MPL · 8 km | 1 h 15 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 35 m no fares MRS · 109 km | 1 h 20 m no fares TRN · 14 km |
| TunisTUN | 1 h 40 m no fares MRS · 109 km | 1 h 50 m no fares MXP · 103 km |
| MontrealYUL, YHU, YMX | 7 h 45 m no fares MRS · 109 km | 7 h 50 m no fares MXP · 103 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 11 h 35 m no fares MRS · 109 km | 11 h 5 m no fares MXP · 103 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it.
Before you go
| Measure | Montpellier | Turin |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | Italian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CFL230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 7 m | 239 m |
| Main airport | Montpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre36 non-stop destinations | Turin Airport (TRN)14 km from centre63 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Montpellier | Turin |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 310,240 | 841,600 |
| People per km² | 5,452 | 6,474 |
| Museums within 10 km | 14 | 72 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 65 | 78 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 2 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montpellier or Turin somewhere new.