VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Newport Beach?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Newport Beach for

  • shopping
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Newport Beach’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, Newport Beach 70: Montego Bay leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay and Newport Beach are level on 50.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Newport Beach 20: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Newport Beach 33: Montego Bay leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Newport Beach 66: Newport Beach leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Newport Beach 70: Newport Beach leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Newport Beach 80: Newport Beach leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay and Newport Beach are level on 20.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Newport Beach 62: Newport Beach leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Newport Beach 15: Montego Bay leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Newport Beach 46: Newport Beach leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Newport Beach 44: Montego Bay leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Newport Beach.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Newport Beach
Best match
48match

Wins on shopping and families 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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayNewport Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayNewport Beach
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m3 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayNewport Beach
City population123,99485,239
People per km²-622
Museums within 10 km04
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montego Bay or Newport Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.