VacationSelector
The Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves, Brisbane
BrisbaneThe Story Bridge from Howard Smith Wharves
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Brisbane by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Brisbane 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 Brisbane for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • wellness

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. Brisbane 55, Kyoto 15: Brisbane leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Brisbane 60, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Brisbane 42, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Brisbane 55, Kyoto 35: Brisbane leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brisbane 74, Kyoto 70: Brisbane leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Brisbane 50, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Brisbane 78, Kyoto 68: Brisbane leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Brisbane 62, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Brisbane 45, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Brisbane 33, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brisbane 55, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brisbane 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: Brisbane and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Brisbane
54match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Brisbane in July

22 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
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
BrisbaneKyoto

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. Brisbane: 1991-2020 normals, Brisbane (4.5 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrisbaneKyoto
Official languageEnglishJapanese
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10UTC+9
Emergency number000Police 110, fire 119
Elevation0 m51 m
Main airportBrisbane International Airport (BNE)13 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrisbaneKyoto
City population2,706,9661,463,723
People per km²1711,768
Museums within 10 km1677
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °C9 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Brisbane 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.