VacationSelector
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica
Vieux Nice and the Baie des Anges, Nice
NiceVieux Nice and the Baie des Anges

Photos: Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Nice by Daniel Stockman, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Montreal or Nice?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • wellness

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

Choose Nice for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Nice’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, Nice 75: Nice leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Montreal 78, Nice 66: Montreal leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Montreal 60, Nice 64: Nice leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Montreal 75, Nice 47: Montreal leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montreal 66, Nice 80: Nice leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Montreal 55, Nice 87: Nice leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Montreal 68, Nice 57: Montreal leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Montreal 72, Nice 74: Nice leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Montreal 60, Nice 55: Montreal leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Montreal 45, Nice 35: Montreal leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montreal 76, Nice 45: Montreal leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montreal 57, Nice 40: Montreal leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montreal and Nice.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Montreal
61match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Nice
60match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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

Nice in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MontrealNice

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). Nice: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontrealNice
Official languageFrench, EnglishFrench
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation31 m0 m
Main airportMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)6 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontrealNice
City population1,895,211357,737
People per km²3,8064,975
Museums within 10 km3717
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montreal or Nice 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.