VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Johannesburg by K, Pexels License; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Johannesburg 5, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Mombasa 60: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Mombasa 55: Johannesburg leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Mombasa 46: Johannesburg leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Mombasa 45: Johannesburg leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Mombasa 30: Mombasa leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Mombasa 35: Johannesburg leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Mombasa 70: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Mombasa 22: Johannesburg leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 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: Johannesburg and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

Mombasa
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches 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.

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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
JohannesburgMombasa

Where the figures come from

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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgMombasa
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+3
Emergency number112Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation1,753 m50 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgMombasa
City population4,803,2621,208,333
People per km²2,9224,100
Museums within 10 km140
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Johannesburg 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). 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. 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.

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.