VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Faro or Ocho Rios?

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 Faro for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Ocho Rios for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocho Rios’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. Faro 74, Ocho Rios 78: Ocho Rios leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Ocho Rios 42: Faro leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Ocho Rios 16: Faro leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Ocho Rios 28: Faro leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Ocho Rios 72: Ocho Rios leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Ocho Rios 56: Faro leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Faro and Ocho Rios are level on 60.
Getting around. Faro 60, Ocho Rios 24: Faro leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Ocho Rios 26: Faro leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, Ocho Rios 42: Faro leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Ocho Rios 14: Faro leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Ocho Rios 50: Ocho Rios leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro and Ocho Rios.

Your match

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

Faro
Best match
49match

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

Ocho Rios
42match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Ocho Rios in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
FaroOcho Rios

Where the figures come from

Ocho Rios's temperatures are measured 62 km from the centre, at Kingston / Norman Manley.

Ocho Rios 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. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroOcho Rios
Official languagePortugueseEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation10 m59 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroOcho Rios
City population64,56016,671
People per km²319-
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Faro or Ocho Rios 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.