VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
Parliament Hill across the Ottawa River, Ottawa
OttawaParliament Hill across the Ottawa River

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Ottawa by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Ottawa?

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
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Ottawa for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Ottawa’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, Ottawa 35: Mombasa leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Ottawa 45: Mombasa leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Ottawa 35: Mombasa leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Ottawa 68: Mombasa leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Ottawa 68: Ottawa leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Ottawa 62: Ottawa leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Ottawa 40: Ottawa leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Ottawa 40: Mombasa leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Ottawa 52: Ottawa leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Ottawa 55: Ottawa leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Ottawa.

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 prices with your weighting.

Ottawa
51match

Wins on getting around 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

Ottawa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaOttawa

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). Ottawa: 1991-2020 normals, Ottawa CDA RCS (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaOttawa
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliFrench, English
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
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 m70 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsOttawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW)12 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaOttawa
City population1,208,3331,017,449
People per km²4,100366
Museums within 10 km020
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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