VacationSelector
The Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake, Guilin
GuilinThe Sun and Moon pagodas on Shan Lake
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Guilin by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Guilin 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 Guilin for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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. Guilin 8, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Guilin 45, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Guilin 40, Montego Bay 28: Guilin leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Guilin 30, Montego Bay 42: Montego Bay leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guilin 88, Montego Bay 65: Guilin leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Guilin 56, Montego Bay 50: Guilin leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Guilin 45, Montego Bay 48: Montego Bay leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Guilin 45, Montego Bay 20: Guilin leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Guilin 28, Montego Bay 25: Guilin leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Guilin 78, Montego Bay 38: Guilin leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guilin 30, Montego Bay 32: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Guilin 40, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guilin and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Guilin
44match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Guilin in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
248 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
GuilinMontego Bay

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Guilin: 1991-2020 normals, Guilin (7.6 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuilinMontego Bay
Official languagePutonghuaEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation153 m19 m
Main airportGuilin Liangjiang International Airport (KWL)25 km from centre43 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureGuilinMontego Bay
City population4,931,137123,994
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Guilin 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.