VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • prices
  • 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. Boston 35, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Mombasa 60: Boston leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Mombasa 55: Boston leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Mombasa 46: Boston leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, Mombasa 45: Boston leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, Mombasa 45: Boston leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Mombasa 30: Boston leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Mombasa 35: Boston leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Mombasa 22: Boston leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, Mombasa 40: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Mombasa
50match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 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
BostonMombasa

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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonMombasa
Official language-English, Swahili
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number911Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation43 m50 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonMombasa
City population675,6471,208,333
People per km²2,9104,100
Museums within 10 km510
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boston 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.