VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • getting around
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • 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. Arequipa 8, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Mombasa 60: Arequipa leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Mombasa 55: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Mombasa 46: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa and Mombasa are level on 74.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Mombasa 30: Arequipa leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Mombasa 35: Arequipa leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Mombasa 70: Arequipa leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Mombasa 22: Arequipa leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Mombasa 40: Mombasa leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

Mombasa
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Mombasa in July

28 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
63 mmrain in the month
26 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
ArequipaMombasa

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaMombasa
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish, Swahili
CurrencySol (PEN)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+3
Emergency number111 or 911Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation2,335 m50 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaMombasa
City population1,008,2901,208,333
People per km²1,5514,100
Museums within 10 km30
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Arequipa 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.