VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Bologna 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 Bologna for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Bologna 30, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Montego Bay 50: Bologna leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Montego Bay 28: Bologna leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Montego Bay 42: Bologna leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Montego Bay 65: Montego Bay leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Montego Bay 50: Bologna leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Montego Bay 48: Bologna leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Montego Bay 20: Bologna leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Montego Bay 25: Bologna leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Montego Bay 38: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Montego Bay 32: Bologna leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bologna in July

32 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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
BolognaMontego Bay

Where the figures come from

Bologna 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.

Bologna's sunshine is measured 82 km from the centre, at Cervia.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaMontego Bay
Official languageItalianEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCFL230 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
Elevation54 m19 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaMontego Bay
City population387,971123,994
People per km²2,754-
Museums within 10 km680
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Bologna 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.