VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Mombasa or San Jose?

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 San Jose for

  • day trips
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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 30: Mombasa leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, San Jose 56: Mombasa leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, San Jose 36: Mombasa leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, San Jose 33: Mombasa leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, San Jose 72: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, San Jose 78: San Jose leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, San Jose 65: San Jose leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Mombasa and San Jose are level on 30.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, San Jose 48: San Jose leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, San Jose 20: Mombasa leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, San Jose 38: San Jose leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, San Jose 30: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and San Jose.

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 prices with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on day trips and families 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 in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaSan Jose

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 Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaSan Jose
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 m25 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaSan Jose
City population1,208,3331,013,240
People per km²4,1002,167
Museums within 10 km019
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 Jose 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.