Montreal or Quebec City?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage and nature & day trips 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 Montreal if you want the trip to be about eating and going out: far more restaurants near the centre, a much wider range of kitchens, and many more bars and clubs, with more notable places within walking distance.
Choose Quebec City if heritage and open country matter more: 1 UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach, museums grouped close together, and 7% of the surrounding land protected.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Montreal and Quebec City are level on 0.
| Montreal | Quebec City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 7 | 9 |
| Coast distance | 276 km | 47 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Montreal leads by 19 points.19
| Montreal | Quebec City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 55 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,016 | 387 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 49 | 31 |
Museums & heritage. Quebec City leads by 9 points.9
| Montreal | Quebec City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 37 | 46 |
| Museums within 10 km | 39 | 26 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 19 | 19 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 49 | 73 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
Nightlife. Montreal leads by 31 points.31
| Montreal | Quebec City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 31 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,012 | 250 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 493 | 195 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 49 | 78 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 74 | 8 |
Nature & day trips. Quebec City leads by 7 points.7
| Montreal | Quebec City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 43 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 2 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 189 hectares | 172 hectares |
Good for families. Montreal and Quebec City are level on 50.
| Montreal | Quebec City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 50 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 12 |
| Park area within 2 km | 189 hectares | 172 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Montreal leads by 13 points.13
| Montreal | Quebec City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 43 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 98 | 47 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Montreal and Quebec City are level on 54.
| Montreal | Quebec City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84 | 84 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Montreal leads by 4 points.4
| Montreal | Quebec City | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 46 |
| Monthly daytime high | -3.5 °C to 26.5 °C | -5.7 °C to 25.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 69 mm to 121 mm | 79 mm to 123 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Montreal has about three times as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens. It also has many times as many bars and nightclubs, and about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre.
Quebec City has 1 UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach, which Montreal lacks, and its museums sit more tightly around the centre. Around the city, 7% of the land is protected against 2% near Montreal, so day trips into open country are easier.
Where they are alike
Families get much the same in either city: a similar number of attractions near the centre, similar park space, and 1 theme park each.
The water is not the reason to come to either. Quebec City has 9 beaches nearby and Montreal 7, but neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more. Both share the same weather shape: cold winters, warm summers, and no month at 40mm of rain or less.
Which traveller are you?
Someone travelling to eat and stay out late should take Montreal: about three times as many restaurants near the centre, a far wider range of kitchens, and many times as many bars and clubs.
A traveller who prefers to walk the centre is also better served in Montreal, with about twice as many notable places within walking distance, though Quebec City's museums sit closer together.
Anyone weighting heritage and country air should go to Quebec City: 1 UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach and 7% of the surrounding land protected against 2%. Families can pick either, since each has 1 theme park and similar attractions nearby.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure is a national price level, identical for both cities by construction, so the value comparison here carries no information. This dataset holds no daily budget for either, so no cost comparison is possible at all: neither can be called the cheaper trip on this evidence, and you will have to price accommodation and meals yourself.
The sunshine figure is missing for Quebec City, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured and its monthly ratings rest on temperature and rainfall alone. And neither city has a month at 40mm of rain or less, so warm July and August highs still come with rain.
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). Quebec City: 1991-2020 normals, Beauport (3.2 km from centre).
Montreal is the better bet either side of high summer. May reaches 19°C and September 22°C, against 17°C and 20°C in Quebec City, and its early autumn is drier, at 88-100mm across September and October where Quebec City takes 115-123mm.
In July and August the two converge, with Quebec City at 25°C against Montreal's 26-27°C, and August is Quebec City's strongest month. Winter is the sharper split: January highs of -6°C there against -3°C in Montreal. Neither city has a dry month.
Getting there
| Flying from | Montreal | Quebec City |
|---|---|---|
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 15 m €133-276 YUL · 16 km | 1 h 30 m no fares YQB · 13 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 1 h 20 m €231-372 1 stop YUL · 16 km | 1 h 30 m no fares YQB · 13 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 5 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 2 h 20 m no fares YQB · 13 km |
| Punta CanaPUJ | 4 h 15 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 4 h 20 m no fares YQB · 13 km |
| CancunCUN | 4 h 10 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 4 h 25 m no fares YQB · 13 km |
| Sept-IlesYZV | 1 h 35 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 1 h 20 m no fares YQB · 13 km |
| Puerto PlataPOP | 4 h 5 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 4 h 10 m no fares YQB · 13 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 7 h 10 m €308-372 YUL · 16 km | 6 h 55 m no fares YQB · 13 km |
| El CateyAZS | 4 h 5 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 4 h 15 m no fares YQB · 13 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 1 h 35 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 1 h 50 m no fares YQB · 13 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 | Quebec City |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, English | French, English |
| Currency | Canadian Dollar (CAD) | Canadian Dollar (CAD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 31 m | 98 m |
| Main airport | Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre164 non-stop destinations | Quebec Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB)13 km from centre31 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Montreal | Quebec City |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,895,211 | 574,482 |
| People per km² | 3,806 | 1,184 |
| Museums within 10 km | 37 | 16 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 97 | 47 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montreal or Quebec City somewhere new.