VacationSelector
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach
Playa Tamarindo, Tamarindo
TamarindoPlaya Tamarindo

Photos: Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tamarindo by Jarle Naustvik, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Negril or Tamarindo?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Tamarindo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Tamarindo’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, Tamarindo 85: Negril leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Negril 36, Tamarindo 38: Tamarindo leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Negril 8, Tamarindo 5: Negril leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Negril 40, Tamarindo 45: Tamarindo leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Negril 60, Tamarindo 76: Tamarindo leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Negril 35, Tamarindo 28: Negril leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Negril 45, Tamarindo 55: Tamarindo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Negril 30, Tamarindo 32: Tamarindo leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Negril 15, Tamarindo 18: Tamarindo leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Negril 44, Tamarindo 36: Negril leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Negril 33, Tamarindo 10: Negril leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Negril 52, Tamarindo 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 Tamarindo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Negril
41match

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

Tamarindo
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families 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

Tamarindo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
129 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
NegrilTamarindo

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.

Tamarindo's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Liberia.

Tamarindo 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). Tamarindo: 1991-2020 normals, Liberia (53.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNegrilTamarindo
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisSpanish
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation10 m27 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsDaniel Oduber Quirós International Airport (LIR)43 km from centre30 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNegrilTamarindo
City population4,5007,132
People per km²-57
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 Tamarindo 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.