VacationSelector
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Negril or Sarasota?

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
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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, Sarasota 86: Negril leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Negril 36, Sarasota 44: Sarasota leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Negril 8, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Negril 40, Sarasota 28: Negril leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Negril 60, Sarasota 55: Negril leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Negril 35, Sarasota 50: Sarasota leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Negril 45, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Negril 30, Sarasota 28: Negril leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Negril 15, Sarasota 40: Sarasota leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Negril 44, Sarasota 30: Negril leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Negril 33, Sarasota 58: Sarasota leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Negril 52, Sarasota 45: Negril leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Negril and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Negril
41match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Sarasota
Best match
48match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

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

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
NegrilSarasota

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.

Sarasota 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.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNegrilSarasota
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation10 m7 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNegrilSarasota
City population4,50054,842
People per km²-840
Museums within 10 km03
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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