VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
The Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock, Petra
PetraThe Treasury, Al-Khazneh, cut into the rock

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Petra by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Ocho Rios or Petra?

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

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Petra for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Petra’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, Petra 5: Ocho Rios leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, Petra 22: Ocho Rios leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Petra 85: Petra leads by 69 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Petra 5: Ocho Rios leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios 72, Petra 78: Petra leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Petra 30: Ocho Rios leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, Petra 25: Ocho Rios leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Petra 25: Petra leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Petra 18: Ocho Rios leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, Petra 45: Petra leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Petra 10: Ocho Rios leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Petra 28: Ocho Rios leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocho Rios and Petra.

Your match

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

Ocho Rios
Best match
42match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Petra
31match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

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

Petra in July

35 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosPetra

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.

Petra's temperatures are measured 34 km from the centre, at Ma'An.

Petra's station stands 219 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Petra 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). Petra: 1991-2020 normals, Ma'An (33.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosPetra
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisArabic
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Jordanian Dinar (JOD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzBCFGJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation59 m850 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsKing Hussein International Airport (AQJ)90 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosPetra
City population16,671-
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Ocho Rios or Petra 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. 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.