VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Ocho Rios or Reykjavik?

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
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: Ocho Rios leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios and Reykjavik are level on 42.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Reykjavik 25: Reykjavik leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios 72, Reykjavik 92: Reykjavik leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Reykjavik 35: Ocho Rios leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, Reykjavik 55: Ocho Rios leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Reykjavik 55: Reykjavik leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Reykjavik 25: Ocho Rios leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, Reykjavik 6: Ocho Rios leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Reykjavik 45: Reykjavik leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocho Rios and Reykjavik.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

Wins on wellness 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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosReykjavik

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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre). Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosReykjavik
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisIcelandic
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation59 m8 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosReykjavik
City population16,671138,772
People per km²-569
Museums within 10 km023
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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