VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

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

Galway 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 Galway for

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

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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. Galway 28, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Mombasa 60: Mombasa leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Mombasa 55: Mombasa leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Mombasa 46: Galway leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Mombasa 74: Galway leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Mombasa 45: Galway leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Mombasa 30: Galway leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Mombasa 35: Galway leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Mombasa 22: Galway leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Mombasa 40: Mombasa leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

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

Mombasa
Best match
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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
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
GalwayMombasa

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayMombasa
Official languageEnglish, IrishEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation25 m50 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayMombasa
City population83,4561,208,333
People per km²1,5634,100
Museums within 10 km40
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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