VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Ocho Rios for

  • prices
  • beaches

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. Biarritz 68, Ocho Rios 78: Ocho Rios leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Ocho Rios 42: Biarritz leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Ocho Rios 16: Biarritz leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Ocho Rios 28: Biarritz leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Ocho Rios 72: Biarritz leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Ocho Rios 56: Biarritz leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Ocho Rios 60: Biarritz leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Ocho Rios 24: Biarritz leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Ocho Rios 26: Biarritz leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Ocho Rios 42: Ocho Rios leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Ocho Rios 14: Biarritz leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Ocho Rios 50: Biarritz leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Ocho Rios.

Your match

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

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on prices 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.

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 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
BiarritzOcho Rios

Where the figures come from

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. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzOcho Rios
Official languageFrenchEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation0 m59 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzOcho Rios
City population26,20616,671
People per km²2,240-
Museums within 10 km80
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.