VacationSelector
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach
Playa Manzanillo, Puerto Escondido
Puerto EscondidoPlaya Manzanillo

Photos: Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Puerto Escondido by theklan, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Negril or Puerto Escondido?

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 Negril for

  • live music and the arts
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Puerto Escondido for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Escondido’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. Negril 93, Puerto Escondido 82: Negril leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Negril 36, Puerto Escondido 48: Puerto Escondido leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Negril and Puerto Escondido are level on 8.
Nightlife. Negril 40, Puerto Escondido 45: Puerto Escondido leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Negril 60, Puerto Escondido 78: Puerto Escondido leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Negril and Puerto Escondido are level on 35.
Good for families. Negril 45, Puerto Escondido 42: Negril leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Negril 30, Puerto Escondido 40: Puerto Escondido leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Negril 15, Puerto Escondido 22: Puerto Escondido leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Negril 44, Puerto Escondido 68: Puerto Escondido leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Negril 33, Puerto Escondido 12: Negril leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Negril 52, Puerto Escondido 58: Puerto Escondido leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Negril and Puerto Escondido.

Your match

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

Negril
41match

Wins on live music and the arts and beaches with your weighting.

Puerto Escondido
Best match
45match

Wins on prices 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.

Negril in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Puerto Escondido in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
NegrilPuerto Escondido

Where the figures come from

Negril's temperatures are measured 52 km from the centre, at Montego Bay / Sangster.

Negril 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.

Puerto Escondido's temperatures are measured 66 km from the centre, at Puerto Angel, Oax..

Puerto Escondido 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. Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre). Puerto Escondido: 1991-2020 normals, Puerto Angel, Oax. (65.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNegrilPuerto Escondido
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation10 m60 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPuerto Escondido International Airport (PXM)2 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureNegrilPuerto Escondido
City population4,50029,903
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Negril or Puerto Escondido somewhere new.

Browse every destination

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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.