VacationSelector
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montreal or Riga?

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

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Riga for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Riga leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Montreal 78, Riga 52: Montreal leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Montreal 60, Riga 66: Riga leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Montreal 75, Riga 52: Montreal leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montreal 66, Riga 55: Montreal leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Montreal 55, Riga 60: Riga leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montreal 68, Riga 50: Montreal leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Montreal 72, Riga 68: Montreal leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Montreal 60, Riga 45: Montreal leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Montreal 45, Riga 62: Riga leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montreal 76, Riga 65: Montreal leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montreal 57, Riga 50: Montreal leads by 7 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Montreal
Best match
61match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

Riga
55match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontrealRiga

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontrealRiga
Official languageFrench, EnglishLatvian
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation31 m6 m
Main airportMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMontrealRiga
City population1,895,211588,911
People per km²3,806-
Museums within 10 km3712
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 Riga 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.