VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Buenos Aires 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 Buenos Aires for

  • nightlife
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Buenos Aires’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. Buenos Aires 7, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, Montego Bay 50: Buenos Aires leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Montego Bay 28: Buenos Aires leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Montego Bay 42: Buenos Aires leads by 53 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Montego Bay 65: Montego Bay leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Montego Bay 50: Buenos Aires leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Montego Bay 48: Buenos Aires leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Montego Bay 20: Buenos Aires leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, Montego Bay 25: Buenos Aires leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, Montego Bay 38: Buenos Aires leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Montego Bay 32: Buenos Aires leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Buenos Aires and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Buenos Aires
Best match
57match

Wins on nightlife 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.

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 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
Buenos AiresMontego Bay

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresMontego Bay
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5
Emergency number117 or 911Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation25 m19 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresMontego Bay
City population3,121,707123,994
People per km²15,355-
Museums within 10 km760
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Buenos Aires 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.