VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
Vieux Nice and the Baie des Anges, Nice
NiceVieux Nice and the Baie des Anges

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Nice by Daniel Stockman, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Nice?

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

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

Choose Nice for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Nice’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, Nice 75: Mombasa leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Nice 66: Nice leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Nice 64: Nice leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Nice 47: Nice leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Nice 80: Nice leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Nice 87: Nice leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Nice 57: Nice leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Nice 74: Nice leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Nice 55: Nice leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Nice 35: Mombasa leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Nice 45: Nice leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa and Nice are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Nice.

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.

Nice
Best match
60match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Nice in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaNice

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). Nice: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaNice
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliFrench
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999112
Elevation50 m0 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)6 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaNice
City population1,208,333357,737
People per km²4,1004,975
Museums within 10 km017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Mombasa or Nice 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.