VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cologne 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 Cologne for

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

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • 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. Cologne 14, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Mombasa 60: Mombasa leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Mombasa 55: Cologne leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Mombasa 46: Cologne leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Mombasa 45: Cologne leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Mombasa 45: Cologne leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Mombasa 30: Cologne leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Mombasa 35: Cologne leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Mombasa 22: Cologne leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Mombasa 40: Cologne leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

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

Mombasa
50match

Wins on beaches 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.

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
CologneMombasa

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. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneMombasa
Official languageGermanEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation59 m50 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneMombasa
City population1,025,5231,208,333
People per km²2,5324,100
Museums within 10 km400
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.