VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

London 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 London for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • getting around

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. London 25, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Mombasa 60: London leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Mombasa 55: London leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Mombasa 46: London leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 17 points.
Day trips. London 90, Mombasa 45: London leads by 45 points.
Good for families. London 82, Mombasa 45: London leads by 37 points.
Getting around. London 85, Mombasa 30: London leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Mombasa 35: London leads by 60 points.
Affordability. London 15, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 55 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Mombasa 22: London leads by 76 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London and Mombasa are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: London and Mombasa.

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping 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.

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
LondonMombasa

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. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLondonMombasa
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
Elevation4 m50 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonMombasa
City population8,799,7281,208,333
People per km²5,5984,100
Museums within 10 km2160
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
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 London 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.