VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Montego Bay or Wellington?

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
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose Wellington for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Montego Bay leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Wellington 44: Wellington leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Wellington 40: Montego Bay leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Wellington 33: Montego Bay leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Wellington 30: Montego Bay 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 Wellington.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Wellington
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BayWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BayWellington
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110111
Elevation19 m0 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BayWellington
City population123,994216,200
People per km²-487
Museums within 10 km012
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 Wellington 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.