VacationSelector
White sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Shores
Gulf ShoresWhite sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach

Photos: Gulf Shores by ourgulfshoresvacation.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Gulf Shores 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 Gulf Shores for

  • families
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Negril for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • 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. Gulf Shores 84, Negril 93: Negril leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Gulf Shores 38, Negril 36: Gulf Shores leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Gulf Shores 12, Negril 8: Gulf Shores leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Gulf Shores 32, Negril 40: Negril leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gulf Shores 52, Negril 60: Negril leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Gulf Shores 52, Negril 35: Gulf Shores leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Gulf Shores 75, Negril 45: Gulf Shores leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Gulf Shores 15, Negril 30: Negril leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Gulf Shores 22, Negril 15: Gulf Shores leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Gulf Shores 42, Negril 44: Negril leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gulf Shores 27, Negril 33: Negril leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gulf Shores 28, Negril 52: Negril leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gulf Shores and Negril.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Gulf Shores
40match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Negril
41match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Gulf Shores in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
165 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
Gulf ShoresNegril

Where the figures come from

Gulf Shores 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.

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. Gulf Shores: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (3.7 km from centre). Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGulf ShoresNegril
Official language-English, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation2 m10 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)54 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureGulf ShoresNegril
City population15,0144,500
People per km²207-
Museums within 10 km10
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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