Montreal or Vancouver?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on sights concentration and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Montreal if you want a compact city trip: the notable places cluster within walking distance of the centre, there are more museums and about twice as many nightclubs, and summer runs warm, up to 27°C in July.
Choose Vancouver if the trip is built around the outdoors: far more beaches, mild winters near 7°C, and a large share of protected land all around it.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Vancouver leads by 60 points.60
| Montreal | Vancouver | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 60 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 7 | 109 |
| Coast distance | 276 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | — | 1 km |
Places to eat. Montreal and Vancouver are level on 74.
| Montreal | Vancouver | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 74 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,016 | 1,330 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 49 | 35 |
Museums & heritage. Montreal leads by 3 points.3
| Montreal | Vancouver | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 37 | 34 |
| Museums within 10 km | 39 | 27 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 19 | 15 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 49 | 56 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Montreal leads by 5 points.5
| Montreal | Vancouver | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 57 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,012 | 848 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 493 | 602 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 49 | 71 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 74 | 44 |
Nature & day trips. Vancouver leads by 41 points.41
| Montreal | Vancouver | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 77 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 2 | 19 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 60 |
| Park area within 2 km | 189 hectares | 103 hectares |
Good for families. Vancouver leads by 3 points.3
| Montreal | Vancouver | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 53 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 11 | 15 |
| Park area within 2 km | 189 hectares | 103 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Montreal leads by 8 points.8
| Montreal | Vancouver | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 48 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 98 | 63 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Montreal and Vancouver are level on 54.
| Montreal | Vancouver | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 54 |
| Price level global | 84 | 84 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Vancouver leads by 3 points.3
| Montreal | Vancouver | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | -3.5 °C to 26.5 °C | 7.3 °C to 23 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 69 mm to 121 mm | 42 mm to 245 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Montreal packs its sights tighter: about twice as many notable places sit within walking distance of the centre as in Vancouver, and there is roughly twice as much park space near the middle of the city, so a day can be done on foot.
Vancouver is the outdoor trip. It has 109 beaches nearby against Montreal's 7, and 19% of the land around it is protected against 2% around Montreal, which puts forest and shoreline within reach of a day out.
Where they are alike
Eating out is where they land closest. Both offer a comparable weight of restaurants: Vancouver has somewhat more places to eat near the centre, Montreal a somewhat wider range of kitchens.
They are also close on museums, families and year-round weather. Montreal has somewhat more museums, neither has a UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach, and both peak in July. Vancouver counts 3 theme parks within reach against Montreal's 1, balanced by Montreal's larger central parks.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone planning the trip around water and open country should take Vancouver: 109 beaches nearby, 19% of the surrounding land protected, and sea that reaches 16°C in August rather than swimming warmth.
A traveller who wants to walk everywhere and stay out late is better served by Montreal, where notable places cluster near the centre, museums are more numerous, and there are about twice as many nightclubs.
Families are close to a coin toss. Vancouver has more attractions near the centre and 3 theme parks against Montreal's 1; Montreal answers with roughly twice as much central park space.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible here. The dataset carries no daily budget for either city, and the value figure both share is a national price level, identical by construction, so it says nothing about whether one trip works out dearer than the other.
Vancouver's beach count is about access, not bathing: the sea peaks at 16°C in August and no month reaches 21°C. Its driest, warmest months are also the ones everyone else picks. Montreal's warmest months are among its wettest, at 98-109mm, so summer heat there comes with showers.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).
Montreal is the better pick from June to September, with highs of 22-27°C. Rain is spread evenly across the year, near 88-109mm in those months, so expect showers rather than a dry season.
Vancouver's window is July and August, its driest months at 42-49mm, with highs of 23°C and sea at 16°C. Its winter stays mild but turns heavily wet, up to 245mm a month, while Montreal's coldest days sit at -3°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Montreal | Vancouver |
|---|---|---|
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 15 m €133-276 YUL · 16 km | 4 h 35 m €210-223 1 stop YVR · 9 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 1 h 20 m €231-372 1 stop YUL · 16 km | 5 h 15 m €353-356 YVR · 9 km |
| QuebecYQB | 55 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 5 h 5 m no fares YVR · 9 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 5 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 4 h 0 m no fares YVR · 9 km |
| CancunCUN | 4 h 10 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 5 h 55 m no fares YVR · 9 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 5 h 20 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 2 h 45 m €147-217 1 stop YVR · 9 km |
| KelownaYLW | 4 h 40 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 1 h 0 m no fares YVR · 9 km |
| CalgaryYYC | 4 h 10 m €208-313 YUL · 16 km | 1 h 30 m €73-86 1 stop YVR · 9 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 6 h 50 m €447-599 1 stop YUL · 16 km | 9 h 35 m no fares YVR · 9 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 13 h 5 m no fares YUL · 16 km | 10 h 20 m €629-762 1 stop YVR · 9 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Montreal | Vancouver |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, English | French, English |
| Currency | Canadian Dollar (CAD) | Canadian Dollar (CAD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 31 m | 2 m |
| Main airport | Montreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre164 non-stop destinations | Vancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Montreal | Vancouver |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,895,211 | 662,248 |
| People per km² | 3,806 | 5,759 |
| Museums within 10 km | 37 | 26 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 97 | 85 |
| 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 Vancouver somewhere new.