VacationSelector
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
GlasgowKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

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

Glasgow 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 Glasgow for

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

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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. Glasgow 14, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Glasgow 52, Mombasa 60: Mombasa leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Glasgow 62, Mombasa 55: Glasgow leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Glasgow 66, Mombasa 46: Glasgow leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Glasgow 75, Mombasa 74: Glasgow leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Glasgow 76, Mombasa 45: Glasgow leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Glasgow 58, Mombasa 45: Glasgow leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Glasgow 66, Mombasa 30: Glasgow leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Glasgow 64, Mombasa 35: Glasgow leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Glasgow 46, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Glasgow 72, Mombasa 22: Glasgow leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Glasgow 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: Glasgow and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Glasgow
Best match
57match

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

Mombasa
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.

Glasgow in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 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
GlasgowMombasa

Where the figures come from

Glasgow 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.

Glasgow's sunshine is measured 90 km from the centre, at Eskdalemuir.

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. Glasgow: 1991-2020 normals, Glasgow Airport (11.5 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGlasgowMombasa
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112 or 999Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation21 m50 m
Main airportGlasgow Airport (GLA)11 km from centre95 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureGlasgowMombasa
City population626,4101,208,333
People per km²1904,100
Museums within 10 km290
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Glasgow or Mombasa somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.