VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

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. Arequipa 8, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Montego Bay 50: Arequipa leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Montego Bay 28: Arequipa leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Montego Bay 42: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Montego Bay 65: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Montego Bay 48: Montego Bay leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Montego Bay 20: Arequipa leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Montego Bay 25: Arequipa leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Montego Bay 38: Arequipa leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Montego Bay 32: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Arequipa
46match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaMontego Bay

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaMontego Bay
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencySol (PEN)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number111 or 911Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation2,335 m19 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaMontego Bay
City population1,008,290123,994
People per km²1,551-
Museums within 10 km30
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 Arequipa 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.