VacationSelector
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Montreal or Rotterdam?

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
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotterdam’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, Rotterdam 27: Rotterdam leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Montreal 78, Rotterdam 52: Montreal leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Montreal 60, Rotterdam 58: Montreal leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Montreal 75, Rotterdam 52: Montreal leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montreal 66, Rotterdam 44: Montreal leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Montreal 55, Rotterdam 85: Rotterdam leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Montreal 68, Rotterdam 66: Montreal leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Montreal 72, Rotterdam 78: Rotterdam leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Montreal 60, Rotterdam 55: Montreal leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Montreal 45, Rotterdam 38: Montreal leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montreal 76, Rotterdam 58: Montreal leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montreal 57, Rotterdam 42: Montreal leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Rotterdam
55match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontrealRotterdam

Where the figures come from

Rotterdam has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontrealRotterdam
Official languageFrench, EnglishDutch
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation31 m10 m
Main airportMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontrealRotterdam
City population1,895,211664,311
People per km²3,8062,080
Museums within 10 km3740
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
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 Rotterdam 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.