VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Vancouver by Xicotencatl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Montego Bay or Vancouver?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Vancouver for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Montego Bay leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay and Vancouver are level on 42.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Vancouver 45: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Vancouver 55: Vancouver leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Vancouver 27: Montego Bay leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Vancouver 52: Vancouver leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Vancouver 50: Vancouver 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 Vancouver.

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.

Vancouver
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayVancouver

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayVancouver
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisFrench, English
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
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 m2 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayVancouver
City population123,994662,248
People per km²-5,759
Museums within 10 km026
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 Vancouver 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.