VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
St. Petersburg, Florida

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License.

Montego Bay or St. Petersburg, Florida?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose St. Petersburg, Florida for

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Petersburg, Florida’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, St. Petersburg, Florida 85: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, St. Petersburg, Florida 44: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, St. Petersburg, Florida 58: Montego Bay leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, St. Petersburg, Florida 55: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, St. Petersburg, Florida 70: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, St. Petersburg, Florida 33: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, St. Petersburg, Florida 38: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, St. Petersburg, Florida 35: Montego Bay leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, St. Petersburg, Florida 42: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, St. Petersburg, Florida 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 St. Petersburg, Florida.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

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

St. Petersburg, Florida
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights 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

St. Petersburg, Florida in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
197 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 BaySt. Petersburg, Florida

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). St. Petersburg, Florida: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySt. Petersburg, Florida
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 m134 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)16 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySt. Petersburg, Florida
City population123,994258,308
People per km²-725
Museums within 10 km013
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 St. Petersburg, Florida 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.