VacationSelector
The Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel, Amman
AmmanThe Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Amman by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Amman 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 Amman for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Amman 22, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Amman 62, Mombasa 60: Amman leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Amman 54, Mombasa 55: Mombasa leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Amman 32, Mombasa 46: Mombasa leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amman 45, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Amman 80, Mombasa 45: Amman leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Amman 38, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Amman and Mombasa are level on 30.
Shopping & style. Amman 42, Mombasa 35: Amman leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Amman 58, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amman 27, Mombasa 22: Amman leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amman 55, Mombasa 40: Amman leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amman and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Amman
45match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

Mombasa
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches 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.

Amman in July

33 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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
AmmanMombasa

Where the figures come from

Amman 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.

Amman's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Mafraq.

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. Amman: 1994-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Amman Airport (6 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmmanMombasa
Official languageArabicEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyJordanian Dinar (JOD)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsBCFGJ230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+3
Emergency number911Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation776 m50 m
Main airportQueen Alia International Airport (AMM)26 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmmanMombasa
City population4,007,5261,208,333
People per km²2,3854,100
Museums within 10 km80
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amman 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.