VacationSelector
The skyline and yachts on the canals, Fort Lauderdale
Fort LauderdaleThe skyline and yachts on the canals
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach

Photos: Fort Lauderdale by KeanoManu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Fort Lauderdale 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 Fort Lauderdale for

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Negril for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • beaches

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. Fort Lauderdale 88, Negril 93: Negril leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Fort Lauderdale 47, Negril 36: Fort Lauderdale leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Fort Lauderdale 28, Negril 8: Fort Lauderdale leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Fort Lauderdale 52, Negril 40: Fort Lauderdale leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fort Lauderdale 62, Negril 60: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Fort Lauderdale 58, Negril 35: Fort Lauderdale leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Fort Lauderdale 66, Negril 45: Fort Lauderdale leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Fort Lauderdale 32, Negril 30: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Fort Lauderdale 52, Negril 15: Fort Lauderdale leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Fort Lauderdale 32, Negril 44: Negril leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fort Lauderdale 42, Negril 33: Fort Lauderdale leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fort Lauderdale 40, Negril 52: Negril leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fort Lauderdale and Negril.

Your match

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

Fort Lauderdale
Best match
50match

Wins on shopping and day trips with your weighting.

Negril
41match

Wins on prices 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.

Fort Lauderdale in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
166 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Fort LauderdaleNegril

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. Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre). Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFort LauderdaleNegril
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
Elevation11 m10 m
Main airportFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre138 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureFort LauderdaleNegril
City population182,7604,500
People per km²1,829-
Museums within 10 km60
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 Fort Lauderdale 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). 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. 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.