VacationSelector
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montreal or San Diego?

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

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Diego for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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, San Diego 72: San Diego leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Montreal 78, San Diego 62: Montreal leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Montreal 60, San Diego 50: Montreal leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Montreal 75, San Diego 48: Montreal leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montreal 66, San Diego 77: San Diego leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Montreal 55, San Diego 60: San Diego leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montreal 68, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Montreal 72, San Diego 38: Montreal leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Montreal 60, San Diego 44: Montreal leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Montreal 45, San Diego 26: Montreal leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montreal 76, San Diego 56: Montreal leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montreal 57, San Diego 45: Montreal leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Montreal
Best match
61match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

San Diego
56match

Wins on beaches and families 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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontrealSan Diego

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontrealSan Diego
Official languageFrench, English-
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation31 m129 m
Main airportMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontrealSan Diego
City population1,895,2111,386,932
People per km²3,8061,438
Museums within 10 km3726
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

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