VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Orange Beach?

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

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Orange Beach for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Orange Beach’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, Orange Beach 86: Orange Beach leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Orange Beach 40: Mombasa leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Orange Beach 7: Mombasa leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Orange Beach 30: Mombasa leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Orange Beach 60: Mombasa leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Orange Beach 50: Orange Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Orange Beach 75: Orange Beach leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Orange Beach 15: Mombasa leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Orange Beach 25: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Orange Beach 38: Mombasa leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Orange Beach 32: Orange Beach leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Orange Beach 32: Mombasa leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Orange Beach.

Your match

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

Mombasa
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on families and live music and the arts 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

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaOrange Beach

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). Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaOrange Beach
Official languageEnglish, Swahili-
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999911
Elevation50 m4 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaOrange Beach
City population1,208,3338,095
People per km²4,100196
Museums within 10 km00
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Mombasa or Orange Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.