VacationSelector
Clearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier, Clearwater
ClearwaterClearwater Beach in evening light, with its hotels and pier
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Clearwater by ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Clearwater 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 Clearwater for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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. Clearwater 90, Mombasa 82: Clearwater leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Clearwater 38, Mombasa 60: Mombasa leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Clearwater 18, Mombasa 55: Mombasa leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Clearwater 34, Mombasa 46: Mombasa leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Clearwater 55, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Clearwater 58, Mombasa 45: Clearwater leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Clearwater 78, Mombasa 45: Clearwater leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Clearwater 28, Mombasa 30: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Clearwater 27, Mombasa 35: Mombasa leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Clearwater 35, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Clearwater 36, Mombasa 22: Clearwater leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Clearwater and Mombasa are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Clearwater and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Clearwater
45match

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

Mombasa
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Clearwater in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
188 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 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
ClearwaterMombasa

Where the figures come from

Clearwater 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.

Clearwater's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

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. Clearwater: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg / High Point (12.7 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureClearwaterMombasa
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
Elevation9 m50 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureClearwaterMombasa
City population117,2921,208,333
People per km²1,1544,100
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Clearwater 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.