VacationSelector
The Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla, AlUla
AlUlaThe Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: AlUla by Richard.hargas, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

AlUla 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 AlUla for

  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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. AlUla 3, Kyoto 15: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. AlUla 28, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 57 points.
Culture & sights. AlUla 70, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. AlUla 5, Kyoto 35: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. AlUla 72, Kyoto 70: AlUla leads by 2 points.
Day trips. AlUla 20, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 76 points.
Good for families. AlUla 35, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 33 points.
Getting around. AlUla 15, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. AlUla 15, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 57 points.
Affordability. AlUla 18, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. AlUla 28, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. AlUla 45, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: AlUla and Kyoto.

Your match

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

AlUla
30match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

AlUla in July

43 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AlUlaKyoto

Where the figures come from

AlUla 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.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. AlUla: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Alula / Al ‘Ulá (23.7 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlUlaKyoto
Official languageArabicJapanese
CurrencySaudi Riyal (SAR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsG60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+9
Emergency number112 or 911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation692 m51 m
Main airportAl-Ula International Airport (ULH)24 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlUlaKyoto
City population32,4131,463,723
People per km²-1,768
Museums within 10 km277
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow AlUla 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.