VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Salt Lake City?

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
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’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, Salt Lake City 12: Montego Bay leads by 72 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Salt Lake City 40: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Salt Lake City 42: Salt Lake City leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Salt Lake City 30: Montego Bay leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Salt Lake City 34: Montego Bay leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Salt Lake City 72: Salt Lake City leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Salt Lake City 42: Salt Lake City leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Salt Lake City 36: Salt Lake City leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Salt Lake City 40: Salt Lake City leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Salt Lake City 55: Salt Lake City leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Salt Lake City 38: Montego Bay 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 Salt Lake City.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families 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

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BaySalt Lake City

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySalt Lake City
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m1,288 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySalt Lake City
City population123,994199,723
People per km²-690
Museums within 10 km012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Salt Lake City 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.