VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ocho Rios or Steamboat Springs?

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
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Ocho Rios leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, Steamboat Springs 30: Ocho Rios leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Steamboat Springs 14: Ocho Rios leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Steamboat Springs 20: Ocho Rios leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios 72, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Steamboat Springs 12: Ocho Rios leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, Steamboat Springs 62: Steamboat Springs leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Steamboat Springs 46: Steamboat Springs leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Steamboat Springs 22: Ocho Rios leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, Steamboat Springs 17: Ocho Rios leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Steamboat Springs 28: Steamboat Springs leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocho Rios and Steamboat Springs.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on getting around and wellness 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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosSteamboat Springs

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.

Steamboat Springs 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). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosSteamboat Springs
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican Patois-
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110911
Elevation59 m2,052 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosSteamboat Springs
City population16,67113,224
People per km²-503
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Steamboat Springs 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.