VacationSelector
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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. Laguna Beach 72, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Laguna Beach 40, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Laguna Beach 27, Montego Bay 28: Montego Bay leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Laguna Beach 18, Montego Bay 42: Montego Bay leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Laguna Beach 73, Montego Bay 65: Laguna Beach leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Laguna Beach 72, Montego Bay 50: Laguna Beach leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Laguna Beach 68, Montego Bay 48: Laguna Beach leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Laguna Beach 33, Montego Bay 20: Laguna Beach leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Laguna Beach 46, Montego Bay 25: Laguna Beach leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Laguna Beach 12, Montego Bay 38: Montego Bay leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Laguna Beach 40, Montego Bay 32: Laguna Beach leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Laguna Beach 47, Montego Bay 45: Laguna Beach leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Laguna Beach and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Laguna Beach
46match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on prices 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.

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Laguna BeachMontego Bay

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLaguna BeachMontego Bay
Official language-English, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation6 m19 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureLaguna BeachMontego Bay
City population23,032123,994
People per km²907-
Museums within 10 km20
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 Laguna Beach 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). 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. 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.