VacationSelector
The Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua, Antigua Guatemala
Antigua GuatemalaThe Santa Catalina arch below Volcan de Agua
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls

Photos: Antigua Guatemala by Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antigua Guatemala or Ocho Rios?

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 Ocho Rios for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocho Rios’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, Ocho Rios 78: Ocho Rios leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Antigua Guatemala 48, Ocho Rios 42: Antigua Guatemala leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Antigua Guatemala 68, Ocho Rios 16: Antigua Guatemala leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Antigua Guatemala 34, Ocho Rios 28: Antigua Guatemala leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antigua Guatemala 78, Ocho Rios 72: Antigua Guatemala leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Antigua Guatemala 55, Ocho Rios 56: Ocho Rios leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Antigua Guatemala 38, Ocho Rios 60: Ocho Rios leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Antigua Guatemala 60, Ocho Rios 24: Antigua Guatemala leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Antigua Guatemala 45, Ocho Rios 26: Antigua Guatemala leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Antigua Guatemala 67, Ocho Rios 42: Antigua Guatemala leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antigua Guatemala 22, Ocho Rios 14: Antigua Guatemala leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antigua Guatemala 42, Ocho Rios 50: Ocho Rios leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antigua Guatemala and Ocho Rios.

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.

Ocho Rios
42match

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

Ocho Rios in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 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 GuatemalaOcho Rios

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.

Ocho Rios's temperatures are measured 62 km from the centre, at Kingston / Norman Manley.

Ocho Rios 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). Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaOcho Rios
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 m59 m
Main airportLa Aurora International Airport (GUA)22 km from centre19 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntigua GuatemalaOcho Rios
City population59,09116,671
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 Ocho Rios 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.