Mountain lizards are highly vulnerable to climate change, and the continuous warming of their habitats could be seriously threatening their survival. We aim to compare the thermal ecology and microhabitat selection of a mountain lizard,Iberolacerta galani, and a widely distributed lizard,Podarcis bocagei, in a montane area. Both species are currently in close syntopy in the study area, at 1,400 m above the sea level. We determined the precision, accuracy and effectiveness of thermoregulation, and the thermal quality of habitat for both species. We also compared the selection of thermal microhabitats between both species. Results show thatI. galaniis a cold-adapted thermal specialist with a preferred temperature range of 27.9–29.7 °C, whileP. bocageiwould be a thermal generalist, with a broader and higher preferred temperature range (30.1–34.5 °C). In addition,I. galaniselects rocky substrates whileP. bocageiselects warmer soil and leaf litter substrates. The thermal quality of the habitat is higher forP. bocageithan forI. galani. Finally,P. bocageiachieves a significantly higher effectiveness of thermoregulation (0.87) thanI. galani(0.80). Therefore, these mountain habitat conditions seem currently more suitable for performance of thermophilic generalist lizards than for cold-specialist lizards.