VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Mombasa or Washington DC?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Mombasa leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Washington DC 64: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Washington DC 28: Mombasa leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Washington DC 26: Mombasa leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Washington DC.

Your match

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

Mombasa
50match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Washington DC
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaWashington DC

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaWashington DC
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 m72 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaWashington DC
City population1,208,333689,545
People per km²4,1003,896
Museums within 10 km098
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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