VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
Mountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola, Telluride
TellurideMountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Telluride by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Telluride?

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 Telluride for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Telluride’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, Telluride 5: Mombasa leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Telluride 38: Mombasa leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Telluride 20: Mombasa leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Telluride 20: Mombasa leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Telluride 93: Telluride leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Telluride 30: Mombasa leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Mombasa and Telluride are level on 45.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Telluride 66: Telluride leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Telluride 25: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Telluride 7: Mombasa leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Telluride 35: Telluride leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Telluride 45: Telluride leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Telluride.

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.

Telluride
36match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Telluride in July

23 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
58 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
MombasaTelluride

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.

Telluride 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). Telluride: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Telluride / Lime (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaTelluride
Official languageEnglish, Swahili-
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999911
Elevation50 m2,667 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsMontrose Regional Airport (MTJ)64 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaTelluride
City population1,208,3332,607
People per km²4,1001,372
Museums within 10 km00
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 Telluride 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.