VacationSelector
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Montreal or Washington DC?

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

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Montreal leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Montreal 78, Washington DC 67: Montreal leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Montreal 60, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Montreal 75, Washington DC 57: Montreal leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montreal 66, Washington DC 64: Montreal leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Montreal 55, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Montreal 68, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Montreal and Washington DC are level on 72.
Shopping & style. Montreal 60, Washington DC 52: Montreal leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Montreal 45, Washington DC 28: Montreal leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montreal 76, Washington DC 67: Montreal leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montreal 57, Washington DC 26: Montreal leads by 31 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Montreal
Best match
61match

Wins on wellness and nightlife with your weighting.

Washington DC
56match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MontrealWashington DC

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontrealWashington DC
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-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation31 m72 m
Main airportMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontrealWashington DC
City population1,895,211689,545
People per km²3,8063,896
Museums within 10 km3798
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

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