VacationSelector
The Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
ManilaThe Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Manila by Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Manila 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 Manila for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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. Manila 12, Montego Bay 84: Montego Bay leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Manila 64, Montego Bay 50: Manila leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Manila 54, Montego Bay 28: Manila leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Manila 64, Montego Bay 42: Manila leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manila 40, Montego Bay 65: Montego Bay leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Manila 42, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Manila 42, Montego Bay 48: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Manila 26, Montego Bay 20: Manila leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Manila 60, Montego Bay 25: Manila leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Manila 77, Montego Bay 38: Manila leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manila 50, Montego Bay 32: Manila leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manila 40, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manila and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Manila
Best match
48match

Wins on prices and shopping 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.

Manila in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
487 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0200400600JFMAMJJASOND
ManilaMontego Bay

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManilaMontego Bay
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency number911Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation9 m19 m
Main airportNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureManilaMontego Bay
City population1,902,590123,994
People per km²76,104-
Museums within 10 km270
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Manila 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.