VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Rice terraces and palms at Tegallalang, Ubud
UbudRice terraces and palms at Tegallalang

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

Montego Bay or Ubud?

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
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Ubud for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Ubud’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, Ubud 38: Montego Bay leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Ubud 60: Ubud leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Ubud 58: Ubud leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Ubud 15: Montego Bay leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Ubud 80: Ubud leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Ubud 72: Ubud leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay and Ubud are level on 48.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Ubud 10: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Ubud 52: Ubud leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Ubud 80: Ubud leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Ubud 47: Ubud leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Ubud 96: Ubud leads by 51 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Ubud.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Ubud
Best match
55match

Wins on wellness 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

Ubud in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
110 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayUbud

Where the figures come from

Ubud's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Denpasar / Ngurah-Rai.

Ubud's station stands 209 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Ubud 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Ubud: 1991-2020 normals, Denpasar / Ngurah-Rai (29 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayUbud
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisIndonesian
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation19 m210 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsDenpasar I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS)29 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayUbud
City population123,994-
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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