VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Montego Bay or San Francisco?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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 Francisco 25: Montego Bay leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, San Francisco 14: Montego Bay leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, San Francisco 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 San Francisco.

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 Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around 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 Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BaySan Francisco

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 Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySan Francisco
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 m16 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySan Francisco
City population123,994873,965
People per km²-1,455
Museums within 10 km051
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 San Francisco 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.