VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Bergen 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 Bergen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Bergen 20, Kyoto 15: Bergen leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, Kyoto 35: Bergen leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, Kyoto 70: Bergen leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Bergen 38, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 58 points.
Good for families. Bergen 60, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Bergen 74, Kyoto 72: Bergen leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 38 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Bergen
46match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bergen in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 °Csea
18 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

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BergenKyoto

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. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenKyoto
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiJapanese
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)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 numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110Police 110, fire 119
Elevation5 m51 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenKyoto
City population291,1891,463,723
People per km²3,3391,768
Museums within 10 km3177
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bergen 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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.