Montreal or Chicago?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and sights concentration 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 Chicago if you want the denser trip: more notable places within walking distance of the centre, more restaurants near it, more museums, and 12 lake beaches with a month of swimmable water in August.
Choose Montreal if you would rather have the wider spread of kitchens, more nightclubs and more park space near the centre, and have no interest in swimming.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Chicago leads by 53 points.53
| Montreal | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 53 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 1 |
| Beaches 10 km | 7 | 12 |
| Coast distance | 276 km | 10,000 km |
| Water distance | — | 1 km |
Places to eat. Chicago leads by 7 points.7
| Montreal | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 81 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,016 | 2,147 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 49 | 37 |
Museums & heritage. Chicago leads by 9 points.9
| Montreal | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 37 | 46 |
| Museums within 10 km | 39 | 45 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 19 | 20 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 49 | 44 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
Nightlife. Montreal and Chicago are level on 62.
| Montreal | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 62 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,012 | 1,123 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 493 | 728 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 49 | 65 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 74 | 51 |
Nature & day trips. Chicago leads by 2 points.2
| Montreal | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 38 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 2 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 189 hectares | 118 hectares |
Good for families. Chicago leads by 5 points.5
| Montreal | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 55 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 18 |
| Park area within 2 km | 189 hectares | 118 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Chicago leads by 14 points.14
| Montreal | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 70 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 98 | 217 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Montreal leads by 11 points.11
| Montreal | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 43 |
| Price level global | 84 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Chicago leads by 7 points.7
| Montreal | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 57 |
| Monthly daytime high | -3.5 °C to 26.5 °C | 0.2 °C to 29.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 69 mm to 121 mm | 54 mm to 121 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Chicago has 12 beaches nearby against Montreal's 7, and August lake water at 23°C, where Montreal offers no swimming at all. Its centre holds about twice as many notable places within walking distance, more restaurants near it, somewhat more museums and 1 UNESCO-listed site within day-trip reach.
Montreal counters with a wider spread of kitchens, more nightclubs and about twice as much park space near the centre, though only about half its clubs and bars sit centrally, against most of Chicago's.
Where they are alike
Nightlife is the closest match: both have a comparable number of places to drink, and both carry a real club scene, the difference being where it sits rather than how much of it there is.
Neither city is a base for the outdoors. Protected land runs to 6% around Chicago and 2% around Montreal. Families fare similarly too: Chicago has more attractions near the centre, Montreal more park space, and both have theme parks within reach.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone travelling to walk between things should take Chicago: about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, more museums, and 1 UNESCO-listed site within day-trip reach.
Eating and drinking splits the difference. Chicago has the greater number of restaurants near the centre; Montreal the wider range of kitchens and more nightclubs, though only about half of them sit centrally.
Families who want lake swimming and attractions in one place should pick Chicago, with 12 beaches and 2 theme parks within reach. Those content with playgrounds and open ground will find more park space in Montreal.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible here. The dataset carries no daily budget figure for either city, so nothing in it says which trip is cheaper, and the value ranking rests on a different measure entirely. Treat prices as an open question to check yourself.
The sunshine figure is missing for Chicago: no nearby station records it, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured rather than weak. And its beach lead is thinner than 12 beaches suggests, since only August brings the water to 23°C, and the warm months there are also among the wettest.
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. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre).
Chicago's stretch runs June to September, with July at 29°C and August lake water at 23°C. September is the calmest of them, 25°C and 85mm of rain, well below the 121mm that lands in May.
Montreal is best in July, at 27°C, though the summer months all sit near 100mm. Its shoulder is May, 19°C and 89mm, drier than Chicago's May. January highs of -3°C make winter the harder sell of the two.
Getting there
| Flying from | Montreal | Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 1 h 20 m €231-372 1 stop YUL · 16 km | 2 h 5 m €201-231 ORD · 25 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 15 m €133-276 YUL · 16 km | 1 h 30 m €189-423 ORD · 25 km |
| MinneapolisMSP, STP | 2 h 30 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 1 h 20 m no fares ORD · 25 km |
| QuebecYQB | 55 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 2 h 20 m no fares ORD · 25 km |
| AtlantaATL, PDK | 2 h 35 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 1 h 50 m €141-200 ORD · 25 km |
| Punta CanaPUJ | 4 h 15 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 4 h 25 m no fares ORD · 25 km |
| BostonBOS, PSM | 1 h 10 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 2 h 20 m €220-252 ORD · 25 km |
| CancunCUN | 4 h 10 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 3 h 25 m no fares ORD · 25 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 7 h 10 m €308-372 YUL · 16 km | 8 h 30 m no fares ORD · 25 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 12 h 55 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 12 h 35 m no fares ORD · 25 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. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Montreal | Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, English | – |
| Currency | Canadian Dollar (CAD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 31 m | 179 m |
| Main airport | Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre164 non-stop destinations | Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre272 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Montreal | Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,895,211 | 2,746,388 |
| People per km² | 3,806 | 4,529 |
| Museums within 10 km | 37 | 43 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 97 | 87 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | 1 month |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montreal or Chicago somewhere new.