VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Portofino?

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
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Portofino for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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, Portofino 60: Montego Bay leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Portofino 36: Montego Bay leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Portofino 22: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Portofino 14: Montego Bay leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Portofino 33: Montego Bay leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Portofino 29: Portofino leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Portofino 9: Montego Bay leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Portofino 7: Montego Bay leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Portofino 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 Portofino.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
Best match
44match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayPortofino

Where the figures come from

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayPortofino
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisItalian
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation19 m20 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayPortofino
City population123,994355
People per km²-142
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montego Bay or Portofino 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.