Guanacaste vs Montego Bay

Illuminated beachfront dining pavilion with white railings and thatched-roof bungalows reflected in the pool at dusk.

Beachfront dining area at JOIA Rose Hall by Iberostar with wooden tables, white chairs, cream umbrellas, and a tall palm tree, with the resort building and bar in the background.

Guanacaste and Montego Bay, side by side: live travel advisories, our resort catalog's real guest data, and each destination's honest weather picture. Everything you need to break the tie.

Guanacaste guide · Montego Bay guide · How we score

By the numbers

Guanacaste compared with Montego Bay
Guanacaste	Measure	Montego Bay
Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution	U.S. travel advisory	Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution
7	Resorts in our catalog	7
★ 4.4	Average guest rating	★ 4.5 (better)
$88–$289/night pp (better)	Nightly rates	$120–$210/night pp
1 of 7	Adults-only resorts	4 of 7
Low hurricane risk (better)	Hurricane exposure	In the hurricane belt
May–November ('green season'), seriously wet September–October	Rainy season	May–June and September–November, mostly short afternoon bursts
December–April, bone-dry	Sweet spot	December–April
Liberia (LIR), Papagayo resorts 30–45 min	Airport	Sangster (MBJ), most resorts 10–30 min
Nature + beach in one trip; reliable winter sun	Best for	Short transfers, golf, first Jamaica trips
Wildlife everywhere; volcano and cloud-forest day trips	Signature	Rose Hall Great House; Doctor's Cave Beach

Advisory levels sync from travel.state.gov; catalog figures reflect the resorts we've researched, not every hotel in the country. A marked row is one we are willing to call; rows without a mark are a matter of taste, or we have no comparable figure for both sides.

On the map

Guanacaste

Montego Bay

Weather, month by month

Month-by-month average high temperature and rainfall for Guanacaste and Montego Bay
Measure	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Guanacaste · high °F	91	92	93	93	91	88	88	88	87	86	87	89
Montego Bay · high °F	82	82	83	84	86	88	88	88	88	87	85	83
Guanacaste · rain (in)	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.7	7.7	9.0	5.9	7.9	13.0	12.2	4.3	0.5
Montego Bay · rain (in)	0.9	0.6	0.6	1.1	4.0	3.5	2.4	3.5	5.1	7.1	3.0	1.5

Approximate climate normals for Papagayo / Guanacaste and Montego Bay / Rose Hall: planning guidance, not a forecast. A deeper tint is a higher number, read within its own row.