VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Alta, Utah 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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Negril for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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. Alta, Utah 3, Negril 93: Negril leads by 90 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Negril 36: Negril leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Negril 8: Negril leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Negril 40: Negril leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Negril 60: Alta, Utah leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Negril 35: Alta, Utah leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Negril 45: Negril leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Negril 30: Alta, Utah leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Negril 15: Negril leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Negril 44: Negril leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Negril 33: Negril leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Negril 52: Negril leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Negril.

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

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

Negril
Best match
41match

Wins on beaches 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.

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahNegril

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahNegril
Official language-English, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation2,610 m10 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahNegril
City population2284,500
People per km²19-
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Negril somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.