VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Montego Bay or Pattaya?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’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, Pattaya 66: Montego Bay leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Pattaya 30: Pattaya leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Pattaya 40: Montego Bay leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Pattaya 52: Pattaya leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Pattaya 55: Pattaya leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Pattaya 36: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Pattaya 42: Pattaya leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Pattaya 30: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Pattaya.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

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

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on prices 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

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayPattaya

Where the figures come from

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayPattaya
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisThai
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation19 m35 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayPattaya
City population123,994119,532
Museums within 10 km00
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 Pattaya 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.