VacationSelector
A dhow below the towers of West Bay, Doha
DohaA dhow below the towers of West Bay
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Doha by Gregory Hawken Kramer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Doha 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 Doha for

  • shopping
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • 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. Doha 45, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Doha 55, Mombasa 60: Mombasa leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Doha and Mombasa are level on 55.
Nightlife. Doha 20, Mombasa 46: Mombasa leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Doha 7, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 67 points.
Day trips. Doha 5, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Doha 60, Mombasa 45: Doha leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Doha 45, Mombasa 30: Doha leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Doha 60, Mombasa 35: Doha leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Doha 38, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Doha 30, Mombasa 22: Doha leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Doha 38, Mombasa 40: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Doha and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Doha
38match

Wins on shopping and families with your weighting.

Mombasa
Best match
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Doha in July

43 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
33 °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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
DohaMombasa

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. Doha: 1991-2020 normals, Doha International Airport (5.5 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDohaMombasa
Official languageArabicEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyQatari Rial (QAR)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+3
Emergency number999Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation0 m50 m
Main airportHamad International Airport (DOH)8 km from centre195 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureDohaMombasa
City population1,186,0231,208,333
People per km²8,9854,100
Museums within 10 km60
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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