VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Montevideo?

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 Montego Bay for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Montevideo for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Montevideo’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. Montego Bay 84, Montevideo 55: Montego Bay leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Montevideo 57: Montevideo leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Montevideo 54: Montevideo leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Montevideo 50: Montevideo leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Montevideo 34: Montego Bay leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Montevideo 55: Montevideo leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Montevideo 55: Montevideo leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Montevideo 54: Montevideo leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Montevideo 36: Montevideo leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Montevideo 42: Montevideo leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Montevideo 57: Montevideo leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Montevideo 38: Montego Bay leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Montevideo.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

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

Montevideo
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayMontevideo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayMontevideo
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m41 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayMontevideo
City population123,9941,302,954
People per km²-1,785
Museums within 10 km036
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montego Bay or Montevideo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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.