VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Sarasota?

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

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Sarasota for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Sarasota 44: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Sarasota 28: Montego Bay leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Sarasota 55: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay and Sarasota are level on 50.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Sarasota 28: Sarasota leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Sarasota 40: Sarasota leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Sarasota 30: Montego Bay leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay and Sarasota 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 Sarasota.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

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

Sarasota
Best match
48match

Wins on live music and the arts and families 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

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BaySarasota

Where the figures come from

Sarasota has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySarasota
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m7 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySarasota
City population123,99454,842
People per km²-840
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montego Bay or Sarasota 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.