VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Portland?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Portland for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Montego Bay leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Portland 68: Portland leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Portland 38: Portland leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Portland 52: Portland leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Portland 84: Portland leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Portland 58: Portland leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Portland 55: Portland leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Portland 62: Portland leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Portland 52: Portland leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay and Portland are level on 38.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Portland 55: Portland leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Portland 42: Montego Bay leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Portland.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayPortland

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayPortland
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m152 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayPortland
City population123,994652,503
People per km²-1,736
Museums within 10 km017
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 Portland 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.