VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Montego Bay or New Orleans?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on New Orleans’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, New Orleans 14: Montego Bay leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, New Orleans 84: New Orleans leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, New Orleans 67: New Orleans leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, New Orleans 42: Montego Bay leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, New Orleans 52: New Orleans leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, New Orleans 55: New Orleans leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, New Orleans 54: New Orleans leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, New Orleans 40: New Orleans leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, New Orleans 25: Montego Bay leads by 20 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and New Orleans.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

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

New Orleans
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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

New Orleans in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
169 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayNew Orleans

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayNew Orleans
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m-2 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayNew Orleans
City population123,994383,997
People per km²-423
Museums within 10 km016
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montego Bay or New Orleans 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.