VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Alicante or Kyoto?

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 Alicante for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Kyoto’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. Alicante 82, Kyoto 15: Alicante leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Kyoto 35: Alicante leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Alicante and Kyoto are level on 68.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Kyoto 50: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Alicante
59match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Kyoto in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
225 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteKyoto

Where the figures come from

Kyoto's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Osaka.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteKyoto
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation3 m51 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteKyoto
City population366,2211,463,723
People per km²1,8191,768
Museums within 10 km877
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Kyoto 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.