VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
The cathedral facade, Siena
SienaThe cathedral facade

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Siena by Raimond Spekking, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Siena?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Siena for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Siena’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, Siena 14: Mombasa leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Siena 62: Siena leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Siena 78: Siena leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Siena 27: Mombasa leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Siena 65: Mombasa leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Siena 94: Siena leads by 49 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Siena 38: Mombasa leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Siena 60: Siena leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa and Siena are level on 35.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Siena 42: Mombasa leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Siena 36: Siena leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Siena 55: Siena leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Siena.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Mombasa
50match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Siena
51match

Wins on day trips 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

Siena in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaSiena

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.

Siena's temperatures are measured 45 km from the centre, at Arezzo.

Siena 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). Siena: 2006-2017 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Arezzo (45 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaSiena
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliItalian
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999112
Elevation50 m322 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)55 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaSiena
City population1,208,33352,812
People per km²4,100446
Museums within 10 km030
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
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 Siena 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.