VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Mombasa?

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 Acapulco for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Mombasa’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. Acapulco 80, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Mombasa 60: Mombasa leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Mombasa 55: Mombasa leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Mombasa 46: Acapulco leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Acapulco and Mombasa are level on 45.
Getting around. Acapulco and Mombasa are level on 30.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Mombasa 35: Mombasa leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Mombasa 70: Acapulco leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Mombasa 22: Acapulco leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Mombasa 40: Mombasa leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Acapulco
44match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Mombasa
Best match
50match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Mombasa in July

28 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
63 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoMombasa

Where the figures come from

Mombasa 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. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoMombasa
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+3
Emergency number911Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation18 m50 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoMombasa
City population658,6091,208,333
People per km²3504,100
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Mombasa somewhere new.

Browse every destination

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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.