VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Sao Paulo?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Mombasa leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Sao Paulo 60: Sao Paulo leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Sao Paulo 48: Mombasa leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Sao Paulo 47: Sao Paulo leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Sao Paulo 52: Sao Paulo leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Sao Paulo 44: Sao Paulo leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Sao Paulo 62: Mombasa leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 54 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Sao Paulo 25: Mombasa leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Mombasa
50match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaSao Paulo

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). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaSao Paulo
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliPortuguese
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation50 m760 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaSao Paulo
City population1,208,33311,451,999
People per km²4,1007,519
Museums within 10 km090
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 Sao Paulo 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.