VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Palm 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
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Palm Beach for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm 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, Palm Beach 82: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Palm Beach 47: Montego Bay leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Palm Beach 45: Palm Beach leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Palm Beach 32: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Palm Beach 58: Montego Bay leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Palm Beach 55: Palm Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Palm Beach 62: Palm Beach leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Palm Beach 32: Palm Beach leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Palm Beach 66: Palm Beach leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Palm Beach 12: Montego Bay leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Palm Beach 45: Palm Beach leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Palm Beach 55: Palm Beach 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 Palm 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 nightlife with your weighting.

Palm Beach
Best match
49match

Wins on shopping 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

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayPalm 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). Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayPalm Beach
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m2 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayPalm Beach
City population123,9949,245
People per km²-322
Museums within 10 km04
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Palm 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.