VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
The Gateway of India under a blue sky, Mumbai
MumbaiThe Gateway of India under a blue sky

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Mumbai by Shubam Bhasin, Pexels License.

Mombasa or Mumbai?

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 Mombasa for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Mumbai for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Mumbai’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. Mombasa 82, Mumbai 18: Mombasa leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Mumbai 82: Mumbai leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Mumbai 70: Mumbai leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Mumbai 52: Mumbai leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Mumbai 55: Mombasa leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Mumbai 48: Mumbai leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Mumbai 35: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Mumbai 38: Mumbai leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Mumbai 66: Mumbai leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Mumbai 72: Mumbai leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Mumbai 55: Mumbai leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Mumbai 24: Mombasa leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Mumbai.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Mombasa
50match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Mumbai
51match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Mumbai in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
860 mmrain in the month
2 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

02004006008001000JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaMumbai

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. Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre). Mumbai: 1991-2020 normals, Bombay / Santacruz (5.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaMumbai
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliHindi, English
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Indian Rupee (INR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+5:30
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999108 or 112
Elevation50 m14 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsChhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM)2 km from centre122 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaMumbai
City population1,208,33315,414,288
People per km²4,10025,563
Museums within 10 km01
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Mombasa or Mumbai 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.