VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
Camelback Mountain above the city, Scottsdale
ScottsdaleCamelback Mountain above the city

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Scottsdale by Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ocho Rios or Scottsdale?

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 Scottsdale for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Scottsdale’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, Scottsdale 8: Ocho Rios leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, Scottsdale 46: Scottsdale leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Scottsdale 38: Scottsdale leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Scottsdale 52: Scottsdale leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios 72, Scottsdale 68: Ocho Rios leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Scottsdale 50: Ocho Rios leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios and Scottsdale are level on 60.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Scottsdale 20: Ocho Rios leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Scottsdale 60: Scottsdale leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, Scottsdale 32: Ocho Rios leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Scottsdale 40: Scottsdale leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Scottsdale 72: Scottsdale 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 Scottsdale.

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.

Scottsdale
Best match
46match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts 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

Scottsdale in July

41 °Cdaytime high
29 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosScottsdale

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). Scottsdale: 1991-2020 normals, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosScottsdale
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation59 m380 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)10 km from centre149 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosScottsdale
City population16,671241,361
Museums within 10 km010
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 Scottsdale 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.