VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The beach and the bay with the mountains behind, Nuevo Vallarta
Nuevo VallartaThe beach and the bay with the mountains behind

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Nuevo Vallarta by Harpqueen, Public domain.

Montego Bay or Nuevo Vallarta?

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

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

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

Choose Nuevo Vallarta for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Nuevo Vallarta’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 and Nuevo Vallarta are level on 84.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Nuevo Vallarta 40: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Nuevo Vallarta 6: Montego Bay leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Nuevo Vallarta 16: Montego Bay leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Nuevo Vallarta 75: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Nuevo Vallarta 58: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Nuevo Vallarta 73: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Nuevo Vallarta 25: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Nuevo Vallarta 22: Montego Bay leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Nuevo Vallarta 45: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Nuevo Vallarta 18: Montego Bay leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Nuevo Vallarta 55: Nuevo Vallarta leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Nuevo Vallarta.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on nightlife and culture and sights with your weighting.

Nuevo Vallarta
43match

Wins on families and nature and the outdoors 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

Nuevo Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
206 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayNuevo Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Nuevo Vallarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Nuevo Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayNuevo Vallarta
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m3 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)4 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayNuevo Vallarta
City population123,9941,301
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Montego Bay or Nuevo Vallarta 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.