VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Mombasa or Wilmington?

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 Wilmington for

  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Mombasa leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, Wilmington 48: Mombasa leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, Wilmington 40: Mombasa leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, Wilmington 40: Mombasa leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, Wilmington 58: Mombasa leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Mombasa and Wilmington are level on 45.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, Wilmington 28: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, Wilmington 33: Mombasa leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, Wilmington 42: Mombasa leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, Wilmington 33: Mombasa leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Mombasa
Best match
50match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and families 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaWilmington

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). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaWilmington
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 m9 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaWilmington
City population1,208,333115,451
People per km²4,100839
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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