VacationSelector
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Negril or Sydney?

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

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

Choose Sydney for

  • shopping
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Negril 36, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Negril 8, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Negril 40, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Negril 60, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Negril 35, Sydney 50: Sydney leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Negril 45, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Negril 30, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Negril 15, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 53 points.
Affordability. Negril 44, Sydney 22: Negril leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Negril 33, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Negril 52, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Negril and Sydney.

Your match

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

Negril
41match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on shopping and culture and sights 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
NegrilSydney

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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Negril: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (51.8 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNegrilSydney
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisEnglish
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110000
Elevation10 m6 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNegrilSydney
City population4,5005,450,496
People per km²-449
Museums within 10 km038
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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