VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Tampa?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tampa for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Mombasa leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Tampa 57: Mombasa leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Tampa 42: Mombasa leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Tampa 52: Tampa leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Tampa 55: Mombasa leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Tampa 54: Tampa leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Tampa 22: Mombasa leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Tampa 40: Mombasa leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Tampa 47: Tampa leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Tampa 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 Tampa.

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 prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tampa
49match

Wins on families and live music and the arts 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaTampa

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). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaTampa
Official languageEnglish, Swahili-
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999911
Elevation50 m30 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaTampa
City population1,208,333384,959
People per km²4,100848
Museums within 10 km06
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Mombasa or Tampa 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.