VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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. Galway 28, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Montego Bay 28: Galway leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Montego Bay 42: Galway leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Montego Bay 65: Galway leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Montego Bay 50: Galway leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Montego Bay 48: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Montego Bay 20: Galway leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Montego Bay 25: Galway leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Montego Bay 38: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Montego Bay 32: Galway leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway 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

Galway
45match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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
GalwayMontego Bay

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayMontego Bay
Official languageEnglish, IrishEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation25 m19 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayMontego Bay
City population83,456123,994
People per km²1,563-
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Galway 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.