VacationSelector
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach
The lighthouse and the peninsula in evening light, Punta del Este
Punta del EsteThe lighthouse and the peninsula in evening light

Photos: Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Punta del Este by Marcelo Campi, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Negril or Punta del Este?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

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

Choose Punta del Este for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Punta del Este’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, Punta del Este 72: Negril leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Negril 36, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Negril 8, Punta del Este 22: Punta del Este leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Negril 40, Punta del Este 60: Punta del Este leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Negril 60, Punta del Este 55: Negril leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Negril 35, Punta del Este 45: Punta del Este leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Negril 45, Punta del Este 55: Punta del Este leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Negril 30, Punta del Este 35: Punta del Este leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Negril 15, Punta del Este 42: Punta del Este leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Negril 44, Punta del Este 20: Negril leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Negril 33, Punta del Este 22: Negril leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Negril 52, Punta del Este 32: Negril leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Negril and Punta del Este.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Negril
41match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Punta del Este
42match

Wins on shopping and nightlife 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

Punta del Este in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
NegrilPunta del Este

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.

Punta del Este's temperatures are measured 79 km from the centre, at Rocha.

Punta del Este 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). Punta del Este: 1991-2020 normals, Rocha (78.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNegrilPunta del Este
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation10 m11 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsCapitan Corbeta CA Curbelo International Airport (PDP)18 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureNegrilPunta del Este
City population4,5009,277
People per km²-455
Museums within 10 km05
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Negril or Punta del Este 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.