VacationSelector
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach
The Fortaleza San Felipe, Puerto Plata
Puerto PlataThe Fortaleza San Felipe

Photos: Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Puerto Plata by CareAhLine, CC0.

Negril or Puerto Plata?

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

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose Puerto Plata for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Puerto Plata’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 Plata 80: Negril leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Negril 36, Puerto Plata 40: Puerto Plata leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Negril 8, Puerto Plata 35: Puerto Plata leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Negril 40, Puerto Plata 38: Negril leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Negril 60, Puerto Plata 68: Puerto Plata leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Negril 35, Puerto Plata 48: Puerto Plata leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Negril 45, Puerto Plata 57: Puerto Plata leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Negril and Puerto Plata are level on 30.
Shopping & style. Negril 15, Puerto Plata 30: Puerto Plata leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Negril 44, Puerto Plata 64: Puerto Plata leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Negril 33, Puerto Plata 18: Negril leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Negril 52, Puerto Plata 35: Negril leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Negril and Puerto Plata.

Your match

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

Negril
41match

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

Puerto Plata
Best match
45match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

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 Plata in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
NegrilPuerto Plata

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 Plata 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 Plata: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Puerto Plata (15.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNegrilPuerto Plata
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisSpanish
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation10 m34 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsGregorio Luperon International Airport (POP)13 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureNegrilPuerto Plata
City population4,500-
Museums within 10 km01
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 Plata 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.