VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Palm 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

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Palm Beach for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm 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 and Palm Beach are level on 82.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Palm Beach 47: Mombasa leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Palm Beach 45: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Palm Beach 32: Mombasa leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Palm Beach 58: Mombasa leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Palm Beach 55: Palm Beach leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Palm Beach 62: Palm Beach leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Palm Beach 32: Palm Beach leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Palm Beach 66: Palm Beach leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Palm Beach 12: Mombasa leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Palm Beach 45: Palm Beach leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Palm Beach 55: Palm Beach leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Palm Beach.

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 prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Palm Beach
49match

Wins on shopping 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

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 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
MombasaPalm 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). Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaPalm Beach
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 m2 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaPalm Beach
City population1,208,3339,245
People per km²4,100322
Museums within 10 km04
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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