VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Mombasa or New York?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose New York for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: Mombasa leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, New York 92: New York leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, New York 89: New York leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, New York 97: New York leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, New York 55: Mombasa leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, New York 68: New York leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, New York 70: New York leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, New York 82: New York leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, New York 97: New York leads by 62 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, New York 12: Mombasa leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, New York 99: New York leads by 77 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, New York 42: New York leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and New York.

Your match

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

Mombasa
50match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

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
26 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaNew York

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). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaNew York
Official languageEnglish, Swahili-
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999911
Elevation50 m25 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaNew York
City population1,208,3338,804,190
People per km²4,1007,256
Museums within 10 km0157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Mombasa or New York 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.