VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Plovdiv?

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

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Plovdiv for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Plovdiv’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, Plovdiv 7: Montego Bay leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay and Plovdiv are level on 50.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Plovdiv 66: Plovdiv leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay and Plovdiv are level on 42.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Plovdiv 68: Plovdiv leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Plovdiv 70: Plovdiv leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Plovdiv 40: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Plovdiv 65: Plovdiv leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Plovdiv 33: Plovdiv leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Plovdiv 78: Plovdiv leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Plovdiv 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 Plovdiv.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Plovdiv
Best match
50match

Wins on getting around and prices 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

Plovdiv in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayPlovdiv

Where the figures come from

Plovdiv 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.

Plovdiv's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Kurdjali.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayPlovdiv
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisBulgarian
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation19 m172 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayPlovdiv
City population123,994333,994
People per km²-3,274
Museums within 10 km018
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montego Bay or Plovdiv 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.