VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
Angkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway, Siem Reap
Siem ReapAngkor Wat beyond the palms of the causeway

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Siem Reap by allPhoto Bangkok, Pexels License.

Ocho Rios or Siem Reap?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Siem Reap for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Siem Reap’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, Siem Reap 5: Ocho Rios leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, Siem Reap 45: Siem Reap leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 72 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Siem Reap 42: Siem Reap leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios 72, Siem Reap 40: Ocho Rios leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Siem Reap 55: Ocho Rios leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, Siem Reap 35: Ocho Rios leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Siem Reap 30: Siem Reap leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Siem Reap 38: Siem Reap leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, Siem Reap 88: Siem Reap leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Siem Reap 32: Siem Reap leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Siem Reap 60: Siem Reap leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocho Rios and Siem Reap.

Your match

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

Ocho Rios
42match

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

Siem Reap
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights 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

Siem Reap in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosSiem Reap

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.

Siem Reap has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre). Siem Reap: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosSiem Reap
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisKhmer
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation59 m18 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsSiem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)39 km from centre14 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosSiem Reap
City population16,671147,866
Museums within 10 km06
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 Siem Reap 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.