VacationSelector
Yellow colonial houses in the walled city, Cartagena
CartagenaYellow colonial houses in the walled city
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Cartagena by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cartagena 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 Cartagena for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • day trips

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. Cartagena 70, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Cartagena 62, Mombasa 60: Cartagena leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cartagena 68, Mombasa 55: Cartagena leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Cartagena 70, Mombasa 46: Cartagena leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cartagena 46, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Cartagena 33, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Cartagena 40, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Cartagena 54, Mombasa 30: Cartagena leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Cartagena 48, Mombasa 35: Cartagena leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Cartagena 60, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cartagena 40, Mombasa 22: Cartagena leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cartagena and Mombasa are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cartagena and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Cartagena
Best match
53match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Mombasa
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

Cartagena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
124 mmrain in the month
7 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CartagenaMombasa

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. Cartagena: 1991-2020 normals, Cartagena / Rafael Nunez (3.1 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCartagenaMombasa
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+3
Emergency number123Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation2 m50 m
Main airportRafael Nuñez International Airport (CTG)2 km from centre26 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCartagenaMombasa
City population914,5521,208,333
People per km²1,5994,100
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Cartagena 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). 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. 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.