VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Plovdiv?

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
  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Plovdiv for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Plovdiv’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, Plovdiv 7: Mombasa leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Plovdiv 50: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Plovdiv 66: Plovdiv leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Plovdiv 42: Mombasa leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Plovdiv 68: Mombasa leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Plovdiv 70: Plovdiv leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Plovdiv 40: Mombasa leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Plovdiv 65: Plovdiv leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Plovdiv 33: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Plovdiv 78: Plovdiv leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Plovdiv 44: Plovdiv leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Plovdiv.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Mombasa
50match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Plovdiv
50match

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

Plovdiv in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaPlovdiv

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.

Plovdiv 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.

Plovdiv's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Kurdjali.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaPlovdiv
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliBulgarian
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999112
Elevation50 m172 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaPlovdiv
City population1,208,333333,994
People per km²4,1003,274
Museums within 10 km018
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Plovdiv 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.