VacationSelector
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Montreal or Shanghai?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Montreal leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Montreal 78, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Montreal 60, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Montreal 75, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montreal 66, Shanghai 25: Montreal leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Montreal 55, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Montreal 68, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Montreal 72, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Montreal 60, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Montreal 45, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montreal 76, Shanghai 66: Montreal leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montreal 57, Shanghai 55: Montreal leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montreal and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Montreal
61match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips and shopping 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MontrealShanghai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontrealShanghai
Official languageFrench, EnglishPutonghua
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation31 m4 m
Main airportMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontrealShanghai
City population1,895,21124,870,895
People per km²3,8063,922
Museums within 10 km3745
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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