VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Antigua Guatemala 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 Antigua Guatemala for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • prices

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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. Antigua Guatemala 6, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Montego Bay 28: Antigua Guatemala leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Montego Bay 42: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Montego Bay 65: Antigua Guatemala leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Montego Bay 50: Antigua Guatemala leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Montego Bay 48: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Montego Bay 20: Antigua Guatemala leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Montego Bay 25: Antigua Guatemala leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Montego Bay 38: Antigua Guatemala leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Montego Bay 32: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Antigua Guatemala
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Antigua Guatemala in July

25 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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
Antigua GuatemalaMontego Bay

Where the figures come from

Antigua Guatemala 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. Antigua Guatemala: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Guatemala Aeropuertola Aurora (23.5 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaMontego Bay
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyQuetzal (GTQ)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110/120, ambulance 128, fire 123Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation1,582 m19 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaMontego Bay
City population59,091123,994
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Antigua Guatemala 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.