VacationSelector
Seven Mile Beach, Negril
NegrilSeven Mile Beach
A chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain, Whistler
WhistlerA chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain

Photos: Negril by gustavo.kunst, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Whistler by Ruth Hartnup, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Negril or Whistler?

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

  • beaches
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Whistler for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Whistler’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, Whistler 30: Negril leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Negril 36, Whistler 40: Whistler leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Negril 8, Whistler 20: Whistler leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Negril 40, Whistler 42: Whistler leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Negril 60, Whistler 97: Whistler leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Negril 35, Whistler 30: Negril leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Negril 45, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Negril 30, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Negril 15, Whistler 30: Whistler leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Negril 44, Whistler 12: Negril leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Negril 33, Whistler 15: Negril leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Negril 52, Whistler 60: Whistler leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Negril and Whistler.

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 beaches and prices with your weighting.

Whistler
43match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Whistler in July

25 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
NegrilWhistler

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.

Whistler 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). Whistler: 1991-2020 normals, Whistler - Nesters (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNegrilWhistler
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisFrench, English
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation10 m670 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)52 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)104 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNegrilWhistler
City population4,50013,982
People per km²-58
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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