VacationSelector
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls
The Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ocho Rios or Zurich?

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

  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Zurich for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Zurich’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, Zurich 45: Ocho Rios leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Ocho Rios 42, Zurich 53: Zurich leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Ocho Rios 16, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Ocho Rios 28, Zurich 62: Zurich leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ocho Rios 72, Zurich 80: Zurich leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Ocho Rios 56, Zurich 84: Zurich leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Ocho Rios 60, Zurich 76: Zurich leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Ocho Rios 24, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 71 points.
Shopping & style. Ocho Rios 26, Zurich 66: Zurich leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Ocho Rios 42, Zurich 3: Ocho Rios leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ocho Rios 14, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ocho Rios 50, Zurich 58: Zurich leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ocho Rios and Zurich.

Your match

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

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Zurich
Best match
63match

Wins on getting around 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

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Ocho RiosZurich

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). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOcho RiosZurich
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation59 m408 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureOcho RiosZurich
City population16,671440,935
People per km²-5,016
Museums within 10 km063
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 Zurich 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. 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.