VacationSelector
The wide beach and its hotels in morning light, Daytona Beach
Daytona BeachThe wide beach and its hotels in morning light
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Daytona Beach by Han Zheng, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Daytona Beach 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 Daytona Beach for

  • day trips
  • families
  • prices

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • 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. Daytona Beach 80, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Daytona Beach 36, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Daytona Beach 30, Montego Bay 28: Daytona Beach leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Daytona Beach 40, Montego Bay 42: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Daytona Beach 56, Montego Bay 65: Montego Bay leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Daytona Beach 66, Montego Bay 50: Daytona Beach leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Daytona Beach 60, Montego Bay 48: Daytona Beach leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Daytona Beach 18, Montego Bay 20: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Daytona Beach 27, Montego Bay 25: Daytona Beach leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Daytona Beach 46, Montego Bay 38: Daytona Beach leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Daytona Beach 30, Montego Bay 32: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Daytona Beach 30, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Daytona Beach and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Daytona Beach
43match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Daytona Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
153 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
Daytona BeachMontego Bay

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Daytona Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Daytona Beach / Mansfield Mobile Home Park (4.9 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDaytona BeachMontego 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
Elevation4 m19 m
Main airportDaytona Beach International Airport (DAB)5 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureDaytona BeachMontego Bay
City population72,647123,994
People per km²440-
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Daytona Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.