VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Portofino?

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
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Portofino for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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, Portofino 60: Mombasa leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Portofino 36: Mombasa leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Portofino 22: Mombasa leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Portofino 14: Mombasa leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Portofino 33: Mombasa leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Portofino 29: Mombasa leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Portofino 9: Mombasa leads by 61 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Portofino 7: Mombasa leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Portofino 42: Portofino leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Portofino.

Your match

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

Mombasa
Best match
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on day trips 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

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaPortofino

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.

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaPortofino
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 m20 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaPortofino
City population1,208,333355
People per km²4,100142
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Mombasa or Portofino 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.