VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture, Playa del Carmen
Playa del CarmenThe town beach and the Portal Maya sculpture

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Playa del Carmen by lazyweaver, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Playa del Carmen?

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

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Playa del Carmen for

  • getting around
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Playa del Carmen’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, Playa del Carmen 88: Playa del Carmen leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Playa del Carmen 12: Montego Bay leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Playa del Carmen 66: Playa del Carmen leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Playa del Carmen 74: Playa del Carmen leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Playa del Carmen 72: Playa del Carmen leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Playa del Carmen 78: Playa del Carmen leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Playa del Carmen 55: Playa del Carmen leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Playa del Carmen 38: Playa del Carmen leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Playa del Carmen 52: Playa del Carmen leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Playa del Carmen 22: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Playa del Carmen 54: Playa del Carmen leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Playa del Carmen.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Playa del Carmen
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around 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

Playa del Carmen in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayPlaya del Carmen

Where the figures come from

Playa del Carmen 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). Playa del Carmen: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayPlaya del Carmen
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-5
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m8 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsCancún International Airport (CUN)50 km from centre137 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayPlaya del Carmen
City population123,994304,942
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 Playa del Carmen 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.