VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Santa Monica?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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, Santa Monica 66: Montego Bay leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Santa Monica 60: Santa Monica leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Santa Monica 35: Santa Monica leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Santa Monica 38: Montego Bay leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Santa Monica 72: Santa Monica leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Santa Monica 64: Santa Monica leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Santa Monica 52: Santa Monica leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Santa Monica 56: Santa Monica leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Santa Monica 14: Montego Bay leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay and Santa Monica are level on 45.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Santa Monica.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Santa Monica
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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

Santa Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 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 BaySanta Monica

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Santa Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySanta Monica
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 m32 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySanta Monica
City population123,99493,076
People per km²-4,270
Museums within 10 km019
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Santa Monica 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.