VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Fes 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 Fes for

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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. Fes 5, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Fes 62, Mombasa 60: Fes leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Mombasa 55: Fes leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Mombasa 46: Mombasa leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Fes 62, Mombasa 45: Fes leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Mombasa 30: Fes leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Mombasa 35: Fes leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Mombasa 70: Fes leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Mombasa 22: Fes leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Mombasa 40: Fes leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Fes
49match

Wins on shopping and wellness with your weighting.

Mombasa
50match

Wins on beaches 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.

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
FesMombasa

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

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. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFesMombasa
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsCE50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation408 m50 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureFesMombasa
City population1,167,8421,208,333
People per km²3,6504,100
Museums within 10 km20
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Fes 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). 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.