VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Painted colonial houses in the Pelourinho, Salvador
SalvadorPainted colonial houses in the Pelourinho

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Salvador by Paul R. Burley, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Salvador?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Salvador for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Salvador’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 and Salvador are level on 84.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Salvador 66: Salvador leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Salvador 74: Salvador leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Salvador 52: Montego Bay leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Salvador 56: Salvador leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Salvador 42: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Salvador 42: Salvador leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Salvador 70: Salvador leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Salvador 63: Salvador leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Salvador 32: Montego Bay leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Salvador.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

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

Salvador
Best match
58match

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

Salvador in July

27 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
201 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BaySalvador

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Salvador: 1991-2020 normals, Salvador (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySalvador
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisPortuguese
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation19 m8 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsDeputado Luiz Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (SSA)20 km from centre31 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySalvador
City population123,9942,417,678
People per km²-3,489
Museums within 10 km049
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 Salvador 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.