VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ocho Rios or San Sebastian?

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

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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, San Sebastian 68: Ocho Rios leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 46 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, San Sebastian 52: San Sebastian leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, San Sebastian 44: San Sebastian leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios and San Sebastian are level on 72.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, San Sebastian 40: San Sebastian leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, San Sebastian 32: Ocho Rios leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios and San Sebastian are level on 50.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocho Rios and San Sebastian.

Your match

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

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on getting around and food and drink 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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosSan Sebastian

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.

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre). San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosSan Sebastian
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisSpanish
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation59 m6 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosSan Sebastian
City population16,671189,866
People per km²-3,118
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

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