VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Mombasa or San Sebastian?

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
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Sebastian for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on San Sebastian’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 Sebastian 68: Mombasa leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, San Sebastian 88: San Sebastian leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, San Sebastian 52: Mombasa leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, San Sebastian 44: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, San Sebastian 72: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, San Sebastian 66: San Sebastian leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, San Sebastian 80: San Sebastian leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, San Sebastian 40: San Sebastian leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, San Sebastian 32: Mombasa leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, San Sebastian 45: San Sebastian leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, San Sebastian 50: San Sebastian 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 Sebastian.

Your match

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

Mombasa
50match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Sebastian
Best match
60match

Wins on getting around 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
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaSan Sebastian

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 Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer 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 Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaSan Sebastian
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliSpanish
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999112
Elevation50 m6 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaSan Sebastian
City population1,208,333189,866
People per km²4,1003,118
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Mombasa or San Sebastian 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.