VacationSelector
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Montreal or Reykjavik?

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
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: Montreal leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Montreal 78, Reykjavik 42: Montreal leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Montreal 60, Reykjavik 25: Montreal leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Montreal 75, Reykjavik 45: Montreal leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montreal 66, Reykjavik 92: Reykjavik leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Montreal 55, Reykjavik 35: Montreal leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Montreal 68, Reykjavik 55: Montreal leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Montreal 72, Reykjavik 55: Montreal leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Montreal 60, Reykjavik 25: Montreal leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Montreal 45, Reykjavik 6: Montreal leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montreal 76, Reykjavik 45: Montreal leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montreal 57, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 31 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Montreal
Best match
61match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontrealReykjavik

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontrealReykjavik
Official languageFrench, EnglishIcelandic
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC
Emergency number911112
Elevation31 m8 m
Main airportMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontrealReykjavik
City population1,895,211138,772
People per km²3,806569
Museums within 10 km3723
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montreal or Reykjavik 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.