VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
Ushuaia below snow-capped mountains, Ushuaia
UshuaiaUshuaia below snow-capped mountains

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ushuaia by Jan Tang, Pexels License.

Ocho Rios or Ushuaia?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Ushuaia for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Ushuaia’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, Ushuaia 3: Ocho Rios leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, Ushuaia 40: Ocho Rios leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Ushuaia 22: Ushuaia leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Ushuaia 18: Ocho Rios leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios 72, Ushuaia 88: Ushuaia leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Ushuaia 14: Ocho Rios leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, Ushuaia 40: Ocho Rios leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Ushuaia 45: Ushuaia leads by 21 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Ushuaia 22: Ocho Rios leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios and Ushuaia are level on 42.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Ushuaia 10: Ocho Rios leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Ushuaia 26: Ocho Rios leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocho Rios and Ushuaia.

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.

Ushuaia
31match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Ushuaia in July

4 °Cdaytime high
0 °Cnight-time low
36 mmrain in the month
2 hsunshine a day
No seasea
8 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosUshuaia

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). Ushuaia: 1991-2020 normals, Ushuaia Aerodrome (1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosUshuaia
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisSpanish
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Argentine Peso (ARS)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110117 or 911
Elevation59 m23 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsUshuaia - Malvinas Argentinas International Airport (USH)4 km from centre9 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosUshuaia
City population16,67182,615
People per km²-3,592
Museums within 10 km05
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 Ushuaia 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. 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.