VacationSelector
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Budapest by Perituss, CC0; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Budapest 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 Budapest for

  • nightlife
  • wellness
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • 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. Budapest 25, Kyoto 15: Budapest leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Budapest 63, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Budapest 80, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Budapest 78, Kyoto 35: Budapest leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Budapest 58, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Budapest 68, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Budapest 62, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Budapest 78, Kyoto 72: Budapest leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Budapest 55, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Budapest 62, Kyoto 50: Budapest leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Budapest 76, Kyoto 60: Budapest leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Budapest 98, Kyoto 70: Budapest leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Budapest and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Budapest
67match

Wins on nightlife and wellness with your weighting.

Kyoto
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.

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
BudapestKyoto

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. Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBudapestKyoto
Official languageHungarianJapanese
CurrencyForint (HUF)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 number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation117 m51 m
Main airportBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBudapestKyoto
City population1,675,7771,463,723
People per km²3,1911,768
Museums within 10 km8177
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 Budapest 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.