VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Quito?

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
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Quito for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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, Quito 5: Montego Bay leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Quito 54: Quito leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Quito 77: Quito leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Quito 40: Montego Bay leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Quito 86: Quito leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Quito 55: Quito leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Quito 32: Montego Bay leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Quito 45: Quito leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Quito 40: Quito leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Quito 78: Quito leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Quito 38: Quito leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Quito 44: Montego Bay leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Quito.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Quito
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayQuito

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayQuito
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m2,850 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayQuito
City population123,9941,763,275
People per km²-4,735
Museums within 10 km016
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Quito 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.