VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
The Sanctuary of Truth by the sea, Pattaya
PattayaThe Sanctuary of Truth by the sea

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Pattaya by Matrix, Pexels License.

Ocho Rios or Pattaya?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Pattaya for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Pattaya’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, Pattaya 66: Ocho Rios leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, Pattaya 58: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Pattaya 30: Pattaya leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Pattaya 76: Pattaya leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios 72, Pattaya 40: Ocho Rios leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Pattaya 52: Ocho Rios leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, Pattaya 55: Ocho Rios leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Pattaya 36: Pattaya leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Pattaya 42: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, Pattaya 84: Pattaya leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Pattaya 30: Pattaya leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Pattaya 58: Pattaya 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 Pattaya.

Your match

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

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Pattaya
Best match
52match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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

Pattaya in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosPattaya

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.

Pattaya's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Sattahip.

Pattaya 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.

Pattaya's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Bangna Agromet / Ban Khlong Samrong.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre). Pattaya: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1961-1990, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sattahip (31.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosPattaya
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisThai
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation59 m35 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)83 km from centre150 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosPattaya
City population16,671119,532
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 Ocho Rios or Pattaya 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. 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.