VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Montpellier or Valencia?

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

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Valencia for

  • beaches
  • families
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier 72, Valencia 60: Montpellier leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, Valencia 70: Montpellier leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, Valencia 55: Montpellier leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier and Valencia are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montpellier and Valencia.

Your match

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

Montpellier
62match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MontpellierValencia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierValencia
Official languageFrenchSpanish
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 m15 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierValencia
City population310,240840,792
People per km²5,4526,242
Museums within 10 km1445
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Valencia 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.