VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Charleston 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 Charleston for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • getting around

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Charleston 72, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Montego Bay 50: Charleston leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Montego Bay 28: Charleston leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Montego Bay 42: Charleston leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Montego Bay 65: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Montego Bay 50: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Montego Bay 48: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Montego Bay 20: Charleston leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Montego Bay 25: Charleston leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Montego Bay 38: Montego Bay leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Montego Bay 32: Charleston leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston 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: Charleston and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 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
CharlestonMontego Bay

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonMontego Bay
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
Elevation6 m19 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonMontego Bay
City population150,227123,994
People per km²532-
Museums within 10 km190
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston 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). 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. 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.

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.