VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Playa de los Muertos below the green hills, Puerto Vallarta
Puerto VallartaPlaya de los Muertos below the green hills

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Puerto Vallarta by RL0919, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Puerto Vallarta?

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

Montego Bay does not lead in any category we score.

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

Choose Puerto Vallarta for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Vallarta’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 Vallarta 85: Puerto Vallarta leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Puerto Vallarta 62: Puerto Vallarta leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay and Puerto Vallarta are level on 28.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Puerto Vallarta 66: Puerto Vallarta leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Puerto Vallarta 76: Puerto Vallarta leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Puerto Vallarta 55: Puerto Vallarta leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Puerto Vallarta 65: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Puerto Vallarta 45: Puerto Vallarta leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Puerto Vallarta 42: Puerto Vallarta leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Puerto Vallarta 60: Puerto Vallarta leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay and Puerto Vallarta are level on 32.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Puerto Vallarta 52: Puerto Vallarta leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Puerto Vallarta.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

Puerto Vallarta
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and nightlife 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 Vallarta in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
209 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayPuerto Vallarta

Where the figures come from

Puerto Vallarta 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 Vallarta: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayPuerto Vallarta
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m101 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPuerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR)5 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayPuerto Vallarta
City population123,994224,166
People per km²-4,311
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Vallarta 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.