VacationSelector
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Montreal or San Jose?

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

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose San Jose for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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 Jose 30: San Jose leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Montreal 78, San Jose 56: Montreal leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Montreal 60, San Jose 36: Montreal leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Montreal 75, San Jose 33: Montreal leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montreal 66, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Montreal 55, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Montreal 68, San Jose 65: Montreal leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Montreal 72, San Jose 30: Montreal leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Montreal 60, San Jose 48: Montreal leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Montreal 45, San Jose 20: Montreal leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montreal 76, San Jose 38: Montreal leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montreal 57, San Jose 30: Montreal leads by 27 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Montreal
Best match
61match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips 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

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontrealSan Jose

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontrealSan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontrealSan Jose
City population1,895,2111,013,240
People per km²3,8062,167
Museums within 10 km3719
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 San Jose 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.