VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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. Boston 35, Kyoto 15: Boston leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Kyoto 35: Boston leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, Kyoto 68: Boston leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Kyoto 60: Boston leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Boston
56match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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
BostonKyoto

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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonKyoto
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation43 m51 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonKyoto
City population675,6471,463,723
People per km²2,9101,768
Museums within 10 km5177
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
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 Boston 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.