VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ocho Rios or Paphos?

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
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Paphos for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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, Paphos 76: Ocho Rios leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, Paphos 45: Paphos leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Paphos 62: Paphos leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Paphos 38: Paphos leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios 72, Paphos 70: Ocho Rios leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Paphos 64: Paphos leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Paphos 40: Paphos leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Paphos 25: Ocho Rios leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, Paphos 52: Paphos leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Paphos 22: Paphos leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Paphos 42: Ocho Rios leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocho Rios and Paphos.

Your match

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

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Paphos
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around 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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosPaphos

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.

Paphos 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. Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosPaphos
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation59 m72 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosPaphos
City population16,67135,961
People per km²-1,987
Museums within 10 km04
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 Ocho Rios or Paphos 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.