VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Montpellier or York?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose York for

  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Montpellier leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, York 42: Montpellier leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, York 70: York leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, York 36: Montpellier leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier 72, York 62: Montpellier leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, York 80: Montpellier leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, York 60: Montpellier leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, York 72: Montpellier leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, York 46: Montpellier leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, York 38: Montpellier leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, York 38: Montpellier leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier 42, York 34: Montpellier leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montpellier and York.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

York
49match

Wins on culture and sights 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MontpellierYork

Where the figures come from

York has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierYork
Official languageFrenchEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation7 m25 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierYork
City population310,240208,400
People per km²5,452766
Museums within 10 km1424
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 York 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.