VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Lima 42, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Montego Bay 50: Lima leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Montego Bay 28: Lima leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Montego Bay 42: Lima leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Montego Bay 65: Montego Bay leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Montego Bay 48: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Montego Bay 20: Lima leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Montego Bay 25: Lima leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, Montego Bay 38: Lima leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Montego Bay 32: Lima leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 20 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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
LimaMontego Bay

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaMontego Bay
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencySol (PEN)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency number111 or 911Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation154 m19 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaMontego Bay
City population9,943,800123,994
People per km²3,721-
Museums within 10 km470
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lima 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). 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.