VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
The Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose, San Jose, Costa Rica
San Jose, Costa RicaThe Metropolitan Cathedral of San Jose

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Jose, Costa Rica by Bernard Gagnon, CC0.

Mombasa or San Jose, Costa Rica?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Jose, Costa Rica for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose, Costa Rica’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 Jose, Costa Rica 12: Mombasa leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, San Jose, Costa Rica 42: Mombasa leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: Mombasa leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, San Jose, Costa Rica 40: Mombasa leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, San Jose, Costa Rica 78: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 52: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, San Jose, Costa Rica 44: Mombasa leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Mombasa and San Jose, Costa Rica are level on 30.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, San Jose, Costa Rica 36: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, San Jose, Costa Rica 54: Mombasa leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, San Jose, Costa Rica 38: San Jose, Costa Rica leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, San Jose, Costa Rica 28: Mombasa leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Your match

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

Mombasa
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

San Jose, Costa Rica
41match

Wins on live music and the arts 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
26 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

San Jose, Costa Rica in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
173 mmrain in the month
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaSan Jose, Costa Rica

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.

San Jose, Costa Rica's station stands 241 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre). San Jose, Costa Rica: 1991-2020 normals, Juan Santamaria (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaSan Jose, Costa Rica
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliSpanish
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Costa Rican Colon (CRC)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999911
Elevation50 m1,161 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsJuan Santamaría International Airport (SJO)16 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaSan Jose, Costa Rica
City population1,208,333335,007
People per km²4,1007,511
Museums within 10 km09
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 San Jose, Costa Rica 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. 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.