VacationSelector
The beach with its parasols and the boardwalk, Bethany Beach
Bethany BeachThe beach with its parasols and the boardwalk
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach

Photos: Bethany Beach by Doug Olson, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bethany Beach 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 Bethany Beach for

  • families
  • shopping
  • day trips

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

Choose Negril for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • 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. Bethany Beach 72, Negril 93: Negril leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Bethany Beach 35, Negril 36: Negril leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Bethany Beach 10, Negril 8: Bethany Beach leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Bethany Beach 12, Negril 40: Negril leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bethany Beach 48, Negril 60: Negril leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Bethany Beach 45, Negril 35: Bethany Beach leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Bethany Beach 66, Negril 45: Bethany Beach leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Bethany Beach 33, Negril 30: Bethany Beach leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Bethany Beach 28, Negril 15: Bethany Beach leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Bethany Beach 30, Negril 44: Negril leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bethany Beach 14, Negril 33: Negril leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bethany Beach 33, Negril 52: Negril leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bethany Beach and Negril.

Your match

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

Bethany Beach
36match

Wins on families and shopping with your weighting.

Negril
Best match
41match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bethany Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
95 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
23 °Csea
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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Bethany BeachNegril

Where the figures come from

Bethany Beach's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Salisbury / Quail Ridge.

Bethany Beach 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.

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. Bethany Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Salisbury / Quail Ridge (44.9 km from centre). Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBethany BeachNegril
Official language-English, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation3 m10 m
Main airportSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)45 km from centre4 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBethany BeachNegril
City population9544,500
People per km²318-
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bethany Beach 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.