VacationSelector
The pastel houses of Rainbow Row, Charleston
CharlestonThe pastel houses of Rainbow Row
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Charleston by NealVickers, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Charleston 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 Charleston for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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. Charleston 72, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Charleston 72, Mombasa 60: Charleston leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Charleston 64, Mombasa 55: Charleston leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Charleston 44, Mombasa 46: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Charleston 55, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Charleston 62, Mombasa 45: Charleston leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Charleston 60, Mombasa 45: Charleston leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Charleston 46, Mombasa 30: Charleston leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Charleston 55, Mombasa 35: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Charleston 27, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Charleston 42, Mombasa 22: Charleston leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Charleston and Mombasa are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Charleston and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Charleston
Best match
53match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Mombasa
50match

Wins on prices 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.

Charleston in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
167 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 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
CharlestonMombasa

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. Charleston: 1991-2020 normals, Charleston Airport (16.1 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCharlestonMombasa
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
Elevation6 m50 m
Main airportCharleston International Airport (CHS)16 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCharlestonMombasa
City population150,2271,208,333
People per km²5324,100
Museums within 10 km190
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Charleston 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.