VacationSelector
A dhow below the towers of West Bay, Doha
DohaA dhow below the towers of West Bay
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower

Photos: Doha by Gregory Hawken Kramer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Doha or Nairobi?

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

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Nairobi for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Nairobi’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, Nairobi 4: Doha leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Doha 55, Nairobi 48: Doha leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Doha 55, Nairobi 35: Doha leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Doha 20, Nairobi 58: Nairobi leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Doha 7, Nairobi 84: Nairobi leads by 77 points.
Day trips. Doha 5, Nairobi 28: Nairobi leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Doha 60, Nairobi 55: Doha leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Doha 45, Nairobi 20: Doha leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Doha 60, Nairobi 45: Doha leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Doha 38, Nairobi 60: Nairobi leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Doha 30, Nairobi 35: Nairobi leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Doha 38, Nairobi 25: Doha leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Doha and Nairobi.

Your match

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

Doha
38match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

Nairobi
Best match
41match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife 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
No recordsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Nairobi in July

24 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
DohaNairobi

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Doha: 1991-2020 normals, Doha International Airport (5.5 km from centre). Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDohaNairobi
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 m1,661 m
Main airportHamad International Airport (DOH)8 km from centre195 non-stop destinationsJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-10 days

By the numbers

MeasureDohaNairobi
City population1,186,0235,545,000
People per km²8,9857,967
Museums within 10 km64
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Doha or Nairobi 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.