VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
Palermo Cathedral, Palermo
PalermoPalermo Cathedral

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Palermo by Antonino Giangrasso, Pexels License.

Mombasa or Palermo?

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

  • wellness
  • prices
  • beaches

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

Choose Palermo for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Palermo’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, Palermo 77: Mombasa leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Palermo 81: Palermo leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Palermo 80: Palermo leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Palermo 58: Palermo leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Palermo 72: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Palermo 84: Palermo leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Palermo 44: Mombasa leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Palermo 50: Palermo leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Palermo 44: Palermo leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Palermo 63: Mombasa leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Palermo 62: Palermo leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Palermo 30: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Palermo.

Your match

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

Mombasa
50match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Palermo
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Palermo in July

29 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaPalermo

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.

Palermo 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.

Palermo's sunshine is measured 67 km from the centre, at Ustica.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre). Palermo: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Palermo / Punta Raisi (24.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaPalermo
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliItalian
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999112
Elevation50 m14 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsFalcone–Borsellino Airport (PMO)25 km from centre106 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaPalermo
City population1,208,333630,167
People per km²4,1003,924
Museums within 10 km042
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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