VacationSelector
The church of La Compania under a blue sky, Arequipa
ArequipaThe church of La Compania under a blue sky
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Arequipa by DocSlyper, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Arequipa 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 Arequipa for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • families

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. Arequipa 8, Kyoto 15: Kyoto leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Arequipa 66, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Arequipa 64, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Arequipa 36, Kyoto 35: Arequipa leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Arequipa 74, Kyoto 70: Arequipa leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Arequipa 30, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 66 points.
Good for families. Arequipa 35, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Arequipa 54, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Arequipa 44, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Arequipa 82, Kyoto 50: Arequipa leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Arequipa 27, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Arequipa 34, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Arequipa and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Arequipa
46match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips 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.

Arequipa in July

21 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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
ArequipaKyoto

Where the figures come from

Arequipa's station stands 203 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Arequipa: 1991-2020 normals, Arequipa (9.2 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureArequipaKyoto
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaJapanese
CurrencySol (PEN)Yen (JPY)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+9
Emergency number111 or 911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation2,335 m51 m
Main airportRodríguez Ballón International Airport (AQP)7 km from centre2 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureArequipaKyoto
City population1,008,2901,463,723
People per km²1,5511,768
Museums within 10 km377
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 Arequipa 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.