VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • shopping
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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. Colombo 55, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Mombasa 60: Colombo leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Mombasa 55: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Mombasa 46: Mombasa leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Mombasa 45: Colombo leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Mombasa 30: Colombo leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Mombasa 35: Colombo leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Mombasa 70: Colombo leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Mombasa 22: Colombo leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Mombasa 40: Colombo leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on shopping and prices with your weighting.

Mombasa
Best match
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.

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboMombasa

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboMombasa
Official languageTamil, SinhalaEnglish, Swahili
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation1 m50 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboMombasa
City population647,5571,208,333
People per km²17,3614,100
Museums within 10 km100
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 Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.