VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

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

Montego Bay or San Diego?

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
  • prices

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

Choose San Diego for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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, San Diego 72: Montego Bay leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, San Diego 62: San Diego leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, San Diego 50: San Diego leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, San Diego 48: San Diego leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, San Diego 77: San Diego leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, San Diego 60: San Diego leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 48 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, San Diego 38: San Diego leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, San Diego 44: San Diego leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, San Diego 26: Montego Bay leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, San Diego 56: San Diego leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay and San Diego are level on 45.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and San Diego.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Diego
Best match
56match

Wins on families and live music and the arts 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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BaySan Diego

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySan Diego
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m129 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySan Diego
City population123,9941,386,932
People per km²-1,438
Museums within 10 km026
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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