VacationSelector
The Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel, Amman
AmmanThe Umayyad Palace on the Amman Citadel
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower

Photos: Amman by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Amman or Nairobi?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Nairobi for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Nairobi’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, Nairobi 4: Amman leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Amman 62, Nairobi 48: Amman leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Amman 54, Nairobi 35: Amman leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Amman 32, Nairobi 58: Nairobi leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amman 45, Nairobi 84: Nairobi leads by 39 points.
Day trips. Amman 80, Nairobi 28: Amman leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Amman 38, Nairobi 55: Nairobi leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Amman 30, Nairobi 20: Amman leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Amman 42, Nairobi 45: Nairobi leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Amman 58, Nairobi 60: Nairobi leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amman 27, Nairobi 35: Nairobi leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amman 55, Nairobi 25: Amman leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amman and Nairobi.

Your match

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

Amman
Best match
45match

Wins on day trips and wellness with your weighting.

Nairobi
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife 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
14 hdaylight a day

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AmmanNairobi

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.

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). Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmmanNairobi
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 m1,661 m
Main airportQueen Alia International Airport (AMM)26 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmmanNairobi
City population4,007,5265,545,000
People per km²2,3857,967
Museums within 10 km84
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amman or Nairobi 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.