VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Sao Paulo?

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
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Montego Bay leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Sao Paulo 60: Sao Paulo leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Sao Paulo 48: Montego Bay leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Sao Paulo 47: Montego Bay leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Sao Paulo 52: Sao Paulo leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Sao Paulo 44: Sao Paulo leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Sao Paulo 25: Montego Bay leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on shopping and nightlife 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

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BaySao Paulo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySao Paulo
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 m760 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySao Paulo
City population123,99411,451,999
People per km²-7,519
Museums within 10 km090
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 Sao Paulo 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.