VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Montego Bay or Puerto Plata?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Plata’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, Puerto Plata 80: Montego Bay leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Puerto Plata 40: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Puerto Plata 38: Montego Bay leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Puerto Plata 48: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Puerto Plata 18: Montego Bay leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Puerto Plata 35: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Puerto Plata
45match

Wins on prices and getting around 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

Puerto Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayPuerto Plata

Where the figures come from

Puerto Plata 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). Puerto Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayPuerto Plata
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisSpanish
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m34 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayPuerto Plata
City population123,994-
Museums within 10 km01
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 Puerto Plata 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. 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.