VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Luang Prabang 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 Luang Prabang for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Negril for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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. Luang Prabang 14, Negril 93: Negril leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Negril 36: Luang Prabang leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Negril 8: Luang Prabang leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Negril 40: Negril leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Negril 60: Luang Prabang leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang and Negril are level on 35.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Negril 45: Negril leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Negril 30: Luang Prabang leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Negril 15: Luang Prabang leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Negril 44: Luang Prabang leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Negril 33: Negril leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Negril 52: Luang Prabang leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Negril.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Negril
41match

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.

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Luang PrabangNegril

Where the figures come from

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. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangNegril
Official languageLaoEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation305 m10 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangNegril
City population53,7924,500
Museums within 10 km00
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 Luang Prabang 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.