VacationSelector
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach

Photos: Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License; Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Dubai or Negril?

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 Dubai for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • families

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

Choose Negril for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Negril’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. Dubai 80, Negril 93: Negril leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Dubai 76, Negril 36: Dubai leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Dubai 40, Negril 8: Dubai leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Dubai 62, Negril 40: Dubai leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dubai 25, Negril 60: Negril leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Dubai 45, Negril 35: Dubai leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Dubai 82, Negril 45: Dubai leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Dubai 42, Negril 30: Dubai leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Dubai 82, Negril 15: Dubai leads by 67 points.
Affordability. Dubai 32, Negril 44: Negril leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dubai 40, Negril 33: Dubai leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dubai 46, Negril 52: Negril leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dubai and Negril.

Your match

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

Dubai
Best match
54match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Negril
41match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Dubai in July

42 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Negril in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DubaiNegril

Where the figures come from

Negril's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Montego Bay / Sangster.

Negril 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre). Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDubaiNegril
Official languageArabicEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-5
Emergency number112Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation0 m10 m
Main airportDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureDubaiNegril
City population3,944,7514,500
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubai or Negril 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.