VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Cusco 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 Cusco for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • families
  • 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. Cusco 3, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Montego Bay 50: Cusco leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Montego Bay 28: Cusco leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Cusco and Montego Bay are level on 42.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Montego Bay 65: Cusco leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Montego Bay 50: Cusco leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Montego Bay 48: Montego Bay leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Montego Bay 20: Cusco leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Montego Bay 25: Cusco leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Montego Bay 38: Cusco leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Montego Bay 32: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Cusco
Best match
49match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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
CuscoMontego Bay

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

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

Before you go

MeasureCuscoMontego Bay
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencySol (PEN)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number111 or 911Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation3,399 m19 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoMontego Bay
City population428,450123,994
Museums within 10 km110
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Cusco 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). 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.