VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Montego Bay or Siem Reap?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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, Siem Reap 5: Montego Bay leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Siem Reap 45: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay and Siem Reap are level on 42.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Siem Reap 40: Montego Bay leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Siem Reap 55: Siem Reap leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Siem Reap 35: Montego Bay leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Siem Reap 30: Siem Reap leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Siem Reap 38: Siem Reap leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay and Siem Reap are level on 32.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

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

Siem Reap
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BaySiem Reap

Where the figures come from

Siem Reap has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySiem Reap
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisKhmer
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation19 m18 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySiem Reap
City population123,994147,866
Museums within 10 km06
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 Siem Reap 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.