VacationSelector
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montreal or San Sebastian?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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 Sebastian 68: San Sebastian leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Montreal 78, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Montreal 60, San Sebastian 52: Montreal leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Montreal 75, San Sebastian 44: Montreal leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montreal 66, San Sebastian 72: San Sebastian leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Montreal 55, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Montreal 68, San Sebastian 66: Montreal leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Montreal 72, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Montreal 60, San Sebastian 40: Montreal leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Montreal 45, San Sebastian 32: Montreal leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montreal 76, San Sebastian 45: Montreal leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montreal 57, San Sebastian 50: Montreal leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montreal and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Montreal
61match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

San Sebastian
60match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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 Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MontrealSan Sebastian

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontrealSan Sebastian
Official languageFrench, EnglishSpanish
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 m6 m
Main airportMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontrealSan Sebastian
City population1,895,211189,866
People per km²3,8063,118
Museums within 10 km3714
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

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