VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Mombasa or Wellington?

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 Wellington for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Mombasa leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Wellington 44: Mombasa leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Wellington 45: Mombasa leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, Wellington 40: Mombasa leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Wellington 62: Wellington leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Wellington 68: Wellington leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Wellington 42: Wellington leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Wellington 33: Mombasa leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Wellington 56: Wellington leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Wellington 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 Wellington.

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.

Wellington
49match

Wins on getting around 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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaWellington

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.

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaWellington
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999111
Elevation50 m0 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaWellington
City population1,208,333216,200
People per km²4,100487
Museums within 10 km012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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