VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Scottsdale?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose Scottsdale for

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: Montego Bay leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Scottsdale 46: Montego Bay leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Scottsdale 38: Scottsdale leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Scottsdale 52: Scottsdale leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Scottsdale 68: Scottsdale leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay and Scottsdale are level on 50.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay and Scottsdale are level on 20.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Scottsdale 32: Montego Bay leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Scottsdale 40: Scottsdale leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Scottsdale.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Scottsdale
46match

Wins on shopping and wellness 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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayScottsdale

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayScottsdale
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation19 m380 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayScottsdale
City population123,994241,361
Museums within 10 km010
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Scottsdale 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.