VacationSelector
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Montreal or New 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 Montreal for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose New York for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on New 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. Montreal 25, New York 50: New York leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Montreal 78, New York 92: New York leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Montreal 60, New York 89: New York leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Montreal 75, New York 97: New York leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montreal 66, New York 55: Montreal leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Montreal 55, New York 68: New York leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Montreal 68, New York 70: New York leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Montreal 72, New York 82: New York leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Montreal 60, New York 97: New York leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Montreal 45, New York 12: Montreal leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montreal 76, New York 99: New York leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montreal 57, New York 42: Montreal leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montreal and New York.

Your match

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

Montreal
61match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on shopping and 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.

Montreal in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
98 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontrealNew York

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontrealNew York
Official languageFrench, English-
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation31 m25 m
Main airportMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontrealNew York
City population1,895,2118,804,190
People per km²3,8067,256
Museums within 10 km37157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montreal or New 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.