VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Kyoto 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 Kyoto for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Kyoto 15, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Mombasa 60: Kyoto leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Mombasa 55: Kyoto leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Mombasa 46: Mombasa leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Mombasa 45: Kyoto leads by 51 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Mombasa 45: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Mombasa 30: Kyoto leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Mombasa 35: Kyoto leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Mombasa 22: Kyoto leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Mombasa 40: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips 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.

Kyoto in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
225 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
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
KyotoMombasa

Where the figures come from

Kyoto's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Osaka.

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. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoMombasa
Official languageJapaneseEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyYen (JPY)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation51 m50 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoMombasa
City population1,463,7231,208,333
People per km²1,7684,100
Museums within 10 km770
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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