VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Montego Bay or Rotterdam?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotterdam’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, Rotterdam 27: Montego Bay leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Rotterdam 52: Rotterdam leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Rotterdam 52: Rotterdam leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Rotterdam 44: Montego Bay leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Rotterdam 85: Rotterdam leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Rotterdam 66: Rotterdam leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Rotterdam 78: Rotterdam leads by 58 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Rotterdam 55: Rotterdam leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay and Rotterdam are level on 38.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Rotterdam 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 Rotterdam.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Rotterdam
Best match
55match

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

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayRotterdam

Where the figures come from

Rotterdam 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.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayRotterdam
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisDutch
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation19 m10 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayRotterdam
City population123,994664,311
People per km²-2,080
Museums within 10 km040
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montego Bay or Rotterdam 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.