VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Portland?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Portland for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Mombasa leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Portland 68: Portland leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Portland 38: Mombasa leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Portland 52: Portland leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Portland 84: Portland leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Portland 58: Portland leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Portland 55: Portland leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Portland 62: Portland leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Portland 52: Portland leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Portland 38: Mombasa leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Portland 55: Portland leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Portland 42: Portland leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Portland.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Mombasa
50match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Portland
52match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around 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

Portland in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaPortland

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). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaPortland
Official languageEnglish, Swahili-
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999911
Elevation50 m152 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaPortland
City population1,208,333652,503
People per km²4,1001,736
Museums within 10 km017
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 Portland 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.