VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Lima 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 Lima for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Lima 42, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Mombasa 60: Lima leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Mombasa 55: Lima leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Mombasa 46: Lima leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Mombasa 45: Mombasa leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Mombasa 30: Lima leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Mombasa 35: Lima leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Lima and Mombasa are level on 70.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Mombasa 22: Lima leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Mombasa 40: Mombasa leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Lima
51match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Mombasa
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.

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 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
LimaMombasa

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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaMombasa
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaEnglish, Swahili
CurrencySol (PEN)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+3
Emergency number111 or 911Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation154 m50 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaMombasa
City population9,943,8001,208,333
People per km²3,7214,100
Museums within 10 km470
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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