VacationSelector
The domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi
Abu DhabiThe domes and minarets of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Abu Dhabi by Jeffry Surianto, Pexels License; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Abu Dhabi or Montego Bay?

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 Abu Dhabi for

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Montego Bay’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. Abu Dhabi 78, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Abu Dhabi 55, Montego Bay 50: Abu Dhabi leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Abu Dhabi 64, Montego Bay 28: Abu Dhabi leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Abu Dhabi 34, Montego Bay 42: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Abu Dhabi 28, Montego Bay 65: Montego Bay leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Abu Dhabi 45, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Abu Dhabi 82, Montego Bay 48: Abu Dhabi leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Abu Dhabi 24, Montego Bay 20: Abu Dhabi leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Abu Dhabi 50, Montego Bay 25: Abu Dhabi leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Abu Dhabi and Montego Bay are level on 38.
Live music & performing arts. Abu Dhabi and Montego Bay are level on 32.
Wellness & relaxation. Abu Dhabi 46, Montego Bay 45: Abu Dhabi leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Abu Dhabi and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Abu Dhabi
Best match
48match

Wins on culture and sights and families with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Abu Dhabi in July

43 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Montego Bay in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Abu DhabiMontego Bay

Where the figures come from

Abu Dhabi's temperatures are measured 26 km from the centre, at Abu Dhabi International Airport.

Abu Dhabi has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Abu Dhabi: 1991-2020 normals, Abu Dhabi International Airport (25.7 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAbu DhabiMontego Bay
Official languageArabicEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-5
Emergency number112Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation14 m19 m
Main airportZayed International Airport (AUH)26 km from centre147 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAbu DhabiMontego Bay
City population1,570,000123,994
People per km²1,615-
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C11 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Abu Dhabi or Montego Bay 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.