VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

Montego Bay or Seattle?

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 Seattle for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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, Seattle 30: Montego Bay leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Seattle 66: Seattle leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Seattle 50: Seattle leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Seattle 87: Seattle leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Seattle 64: Seattle leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Seattle 60: Seattle leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Seattle 52: Seattle leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Seattle 22: Montego Bay leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Seattle 40: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Seattle.

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.

Seattle
Best match
54match

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

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BaySeattle

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySeattle
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 m40 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySeattle
City population123,994737,015
People per km²-1,996
Museums within 10 km027
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 Seattle 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.