VacationSelector
Wat Pho, Bangkok
BangkokWat Pho
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Bangkok by Lu Zhao, Pexels License; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bangkok 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 Bangkok for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • 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. Bangkok 12, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Bangkok 95, Mombasa 60: Bangkok leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Bangkok 80, Mombasa 55: Bangkok leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Bangkok 85, Mombasa 46: Bangkok leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bangkok 25, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 49 points.
Day trips. Bangkok 72, Mombasa 45: Bangkok leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Bangkok 50, Mombasa 45: Bangkok leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Bangkok 50, Mombasa 30: Bangkok leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Bangkok 80, Mombasa 35: Bangkok leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Bangkok 85, Mombasa 70: Bangkok leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bangkok 52, Mombasa 22: Bangkok leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bangkok 75, Mombasa 40: Bangkok leads by 35 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bangkok and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Bangkok
Best match
63match

Wins on shopping and nightlife with your weighting.

Mombasa
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.

Bangkok in July

34 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
184 mmrain in the month
5 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BangkokMombasa

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. Bangkok: 1991-2020 normals, Bangkok (5.7 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBangkokMombasa
Official languageThaiEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyBaht (THB)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsABCF220 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation2 m50 m
Main airportSuvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)26 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBangkokMombasa
City population5,676,6481,208,333
People per km²3,6194,100
Museums within 10 km590
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 Bangkok 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.