VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Melbourne 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 Melbourne for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Mombasa for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • 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. Melbourne 50, Mombasa 82: Mombasa leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Mombasa 60: Melbourne leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Mombasa 55: Melbourne leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Mombasa 46: Melbourne leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Mombasa 74: Mombasa leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Mombasa 45: Melbourne leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Mombasa 45: Melbourne leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Mombasa 30: Melbourne leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Mombasa 35: Melbourne leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Mombasa 70: Mombasa leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Mombasa 22: Melbourne leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Mombasa 40: Melbourne leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Melbourne and Mombasa.

Your match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Mombasa
50match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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
MelbourneMombasa

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. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneMombasa
Official languageEnglishEnglish, Swahili
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Kenyan Shilling (KES)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number000Police 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999
Elevation31 m50 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneMombasa
City population5,350,7051,208,333
People per km²5354,100
Museums within 10 km430
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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