VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The British Columbia Parliament Buildings, Victoria
VictoriaThe British Columbia Parliament Buildings

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

Montego Bay or Victoria?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Victoria for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria’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, Victoria 28: Montego Bay leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay and Victoria are level on 50.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Victoria 42: Victoria leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Victoria 30: Montego Bay leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Victoria 77: Victoria leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Victoria 54: Victoria leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Victoria 62: Victoria leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Victoria 60: Victoria leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Victoria 40: Victoria leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Victoria 34: Montego Bay leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Victoria 40: Victoria leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Victoria 48: Victoria leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Victoria.

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.

Victoria
Best match
47match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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

Victoria in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayVictoria

Where the figures come from

Victoria's sunshine is measured 87 km from the centre, at Vancouver International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Victoria: 1991-2020 normals, Victoria Gonzales CS (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayVictoria
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 m23 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsVictoria International Airport (YYJ)25 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayVictoria
City population123,99491,867
People per km²-4,711
Museums within 10 km06
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 Victoria 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.