VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Mombasa or San Francisco?

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

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

Choose San Francisco for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: Mombasa leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, San Francisco 14: Mombasa leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 54 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Mombasa
50match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaSan Francisco

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). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaSan Francisco
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 m16 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaSan Francisco
City population1,208,333873,965
People per km²4,1001,455
Museums within 10 km051
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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