VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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. Cape Town 58, Kyoto 15: Cape Town leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Kyoto 35: Cape Town leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Kyoto 70: Cape Town leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Kyoto 50: Cape Town leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Cape Town
61match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around 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.

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
10 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
Cape TownKyoto

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. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownKyoto
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguageJapanese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2UTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation5 m51 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownKyoto
City population3,776,3131,463,723
People per km²1,5381,768
Museums within 10 km2277
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34
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 Cape Town 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.