VacationSelector
Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, Cebu
CebuFort San Pedro in Cebu City
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Cebu by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cebu 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 Cebu for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Cebu 60, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Cebu 58, Mombasa 60: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Cebu 40, Mombasa 55: Mombasa leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Cebu and Mombasa are level on 46.
Nature & outdoors. Cebu 60, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Cebu 44, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Cebu and Mombasa are level on 45.
Getting around. Cebu 26, Mombasa 30: Mombasa leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cebu 44, Mombasa 35: Cebu leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Cebu 80, Mombasa 70: Cebu leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cebu 25, Mombasa 22: Cebu leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cebu 50, Mombasa 40: Cebu leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cebu and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cebu
48match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Mombasa
50match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cebu in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 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
CebuMombasa

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. Cebu: 1991-2020 normals, Mactan (7.1 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCebuMombasa
Official languageEnglish, Filipino, TaglishEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyPhilippine Peso (PHP)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+3
Emergency number911Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation135 m50 m
Main airportMactan Cebu International Airport (CEB)9 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCebuMombasa
City population965,3321,208,333
People per km²3,0654,100
Museums within 10 km50
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 Cebu 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.