VacationSelector
A lifeguard stand on South Beach, Miami
MiamiA lifeguard stand on South Beach
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay

Photos: Miami by Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Miami 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 Miami for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Montego Bay for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Miami 90, Montego Bay 84: Miami leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Miami 72, Montego Bay 50: Miami leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Miami 57, Montego Bay 28: Miami leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Miami 82, Montego Bay 42: Miami leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Miami 64, Montego Bay 65: Montego Bay leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Miami 42, Montego Bay 50: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Miami 64, Montego Bay 48: Miami leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Miami 35, Montego Bay 20: Miami leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Miami 71, Montego Bay 25: Miami leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Miami 27, Montego Bay 38: Montego Bay leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Miami 55, Montego Bay 32: Miami leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Miami 44, Montego Bay 45: Montego Bay leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Miami and Montego Bay.

Your match

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

Miami
Best match
59match

Wins on shopping and nightlife with your weighting.

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Miami in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MiamiMontego Bay

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre). Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMiamiMontego Bay
Official language-English, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation2 m19 m
Main airportMiami International Airport (MIA)7 km from centre198 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureMiamiMontego Bay
City population442,241123,994
People per km²3,046-
Museums within 10 km170
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Miami 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.