VacationSelector
The tusks over Moi Avenue, Mombasa
MombasaThe tusks over Moi Avenue
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Mombasa by Rob Oo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Mombasa or York?

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
  • food and drink

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

Choose York for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Mombasa leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Mombasa 60, York 42: Mombasa leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Mombasa 55, York 70: York leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Mombasa 46, York 36: Mombasa leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Mombasa 74, York 62: Mombasa leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Mombasa 45, York 80: York leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Mombasa 45, York 60: York leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Mombasa 30, York 72: York leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Mombasa 35, York 46: York leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Mombasa 70, York 38: Mombasa leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Mombasa 22, York 38: York leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Mombasa 40, York 34: Mombasa leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Mombasa and York.

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.

York
49match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
MombasaYork

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.

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Mombasa: 1991-2020 normals, Mombasa (5.8 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMombasaYork
Official languageEnglish, SwahiliEnglish
CurrencyKenyan Shilling (KES)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112/999, ambulance 112/999, fire 112/999112 or 999
Elevation50 m25 m
Main airportMoi International Airport (MBA)8 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureMombasaYork
City population1,208,333208,400
People per km²4,100766
Museums within 10 km024
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 York 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.