VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Barlas Island in Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa
Puerto PrincesaBarlas Island in Honda Bay

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Puerto Princesa by Ray in Manila, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Puerto Princesa?

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

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Puerto Princesa for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Princesa’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 Princesa 58: Montego Bay leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Puerto Princesa 38: Montego Bay leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Puerto Princesa 22: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Puerto Princesa 26: Montego Bay leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Puerto Princesa 80: Puerto Princesa leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Puerto Princesa 12: Montego Bay leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Puerto Princesa 45: Montego Bay leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Puerto Princesa 30: Puerto Princesa leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Puerto Princesa 20: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Puerto Princesa 78: Puerto Princesa leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Puerto Princesa 10: Montego Bay leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Puerto Princesa 40: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Puerto Princesa.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
Best match
44match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Puerto Princesa
38match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors 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 Princesa in July

29 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
216 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 BayPuerto Princesa

Where the figures come from

Puerto Princesa 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). Puerto Princesa: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayPuerto Princesa
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m98 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPuerto Princesa International Airport / PAF Antonio Bautista Air Base (PPS)2 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayPuerto Princesa
City population123,994316,384
People per km²-133
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 Princesa 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.