VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

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. Edinburgh 22, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Montego Bay 50: Edinburgh leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Montego Bay 28: Edinburgh leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Montego Bay 42: Edinburgh leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Montego Bay 65: Edinburgh leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Montego Bay 50: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Montego Bay 48: Edinburgh leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Montego Bay 20: Edinburgh leads by 54 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Montego Bay 25: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Montego Bay 38: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Montego Bay 32: Edinburgh leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 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
EdinburghMontego Bay

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghMontego Bay
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112 or 999Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation47 m19 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghMontego Bay
City population488,050123,994
People per km²1,884-
Museums within 10 km320
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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