VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Nairobi?

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

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Nairobi for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Nairobi’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, Nairobi 4: Montego Bay leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Nairobi 48: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Nairobi 35: Nairobi leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Nairobi 58: Nairobi leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Nairobi 84: Nairobi leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Nairobi 28: Montego Bay leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Nairobi 55: Nairobi leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay and Nairobi are level on 20.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Nairobi 45: Nairobi leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Nairobi 60: Nairobi leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Nairobi 35: Nairobi leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Nairobi 25: Montego Bay leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Nairobi.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
Best match
44match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Nairobi
41match

Wins on prices and shopping 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

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayNairobi

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayNairobi
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation19 m1,661 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayNairobi
City population123,9945,545,000
People per km²-7,967
Museums within 10 km04
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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