VacationSelector
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
GlasgowKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
The Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower, Nairobi
NairobiThe Nairobi skyline with the KICC tower

Photos: Glasgow by Stinglehammer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Nairobi by Lmwangi, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Glasgow 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 Glasgow for

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

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

Choose Nairobi for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Glasgow 14, Nairobi 4: Glasgow leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Glasgow 52, Nairobi 48: Glasgow leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Glasgow 62, Nairobi 35: Glasgow leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Glasgow 66, Nairobi 58: Glasgow leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Glasgow 75, Nairobi 84: Nairobi leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Glasgow 76, Nairobi 28: Glasgow leads by 48 points.
Good for families. Glasgow 58, Nairobi 55: Glasgow leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Glasgow 66, Nairobi 20: Glasgow leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Glasgow 64, Nairobi 45: Glasgow leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Glasgow 46, Nairobi 60: Nairobi leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Glasgow 72, Nairobi 35: Glasgow leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Glasgow 28, Nairobi 25: Glasgow leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Glasgow and Nairobi.

Your match

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

Glasgow
Best match
57match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Nairobi
41match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors 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

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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GlasgowNairobi

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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Glasgow: 1991-2020 normals, Glasgow Airport (11.5 km from centre). Nairobi: 1991-2020 normals, Nairobi ACC/FIC/RCC/MET/COM/ (13.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGlasgowNairobi
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 m1,661 m
Main airportGlasgow Airport (GLA)11 km from centre95 non-stop destinationsJomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO)13 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureGlasgowNairobi
City population626,4105,545,000
People per km²1907,967
Museums within 10 km294
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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