VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Negril?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Negril for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Negril’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, Negril 93: Negril leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Negril 36: Acapulco leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Negril 8: Acapulco leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Negril 40: Acapulco leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Negril 60: Negril leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Negril 35: Negril leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Acapulco and Negril are level on 45.
Getting around. Acapulco and Negril are level on 30.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Negril 15: Acapulco leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Negril 44: Acapulco leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Negril 33: Negril leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Negril 52: Negril leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Negril.

Your match

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

Acapulco
Best match
44match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Negril
41match

Wins on day trips and wellness 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

Negril in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
174 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
AcapulcoNegril

Where the figures come from

Negril's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Montego Bay / Sangster.

Negril 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. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoNegril
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 m10 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoNegril
City population658,6094,500
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 Negril 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. 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.