VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Ocho Rios or Palermo?

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 Ocho Rios for

  • wellness
  • families
  • beaches

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

Choose Palermo for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Palermo’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. Ocho Rios 78, Palermo 77: Ocho Rios leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 64 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Palermo 58: Palermo leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios and Palermo are level on 72.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, Palermo 44: Ocho Rios leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Palermo 50: Palermo leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Palermo 44: Palermo leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, Palermo 63: Palermo leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Palermo 30: Ocho Rios leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocho Rios and Palermo.

Your match

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

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Ocho Rios in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Palermo in July

29 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosPalermo

Where the figures come from

Ocho Rios's temperatures are measured 62 km from the centre, at Kingston / Norman Manley.

Ocho Rios 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.

Palermo 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.

Palermo's sunshine is measured 67 km from the centre, at Ustica.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosPalermo
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisItalian
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation59 m14 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosPalermo
City population16,671630,167
People per km²-3,924
Museums within 10 km042
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ocho Rios or Palermo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.