VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Acapulco 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 Acapulco for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Acapulco 80, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Montego Bay 50: Acapulco leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco and Montego Bay are level on 28.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Montego Bay 42: Acapulco leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Montego Bay 65: Montego Bay leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Montego Bay 48: Montego Bay leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Montego Bay 20: Acapulco leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Montego Bay 25: Acapulco leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Montego Bay 38: Acapulco leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Montego Bay 32: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Acapulco
44match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoMontego Bay

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoMontego Bay
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency number911Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation18 m19 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoMontego Bay
City population658,609123,994
People per km²350-
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco 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). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.