VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Luang Prabang or Ocho Rios?

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
  • getting around

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

Choose Ocho Rios for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocho Rios’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, Ocho Rios 78: Ocho Rios leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang and Ocho Rios are level on 42.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Ocho Rios 16: Luang Prabang leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Ocho Rios 28: Ocho Rios leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Ocho Rios 72: Ocho Rios leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Ocho Rios 56: Ocho Rios leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Ocho Rios 60: Ocho Rios leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Ocho Rios 24: Luang Prabang leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Ocho Rios 26: Luang Prabang leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Ocho Rios 42: Luang Prabang leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Ocho Rios 14: Luang Prabang leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Ocho Rios 50: Luang Prabang leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Ocho Rios.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Ocho Rios in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 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 PrabangOcho Rios

Where the figures come from

Ocho Rios's temperatures are measured 62 km from the centre, at Kingston / Norman Manley.

Ocho Rios 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). Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangOcho Rios
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 m59 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangOcho Rios
City population53,79216,671
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 Ocho Rios 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. 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. 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.