VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Cologne 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 Cologne for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Cologne 14, Kyoto 15: Kyoto leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Kyoto 35: Cologne leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Kyoto 68: Cologne leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Kyoto 72: Cologne leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Kyoto 60: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Cologne
58match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on food and drink 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.

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 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
CologneKyoto

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. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneKyoto
Official languageGermanJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)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
Elevation59 m51 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneKyoto
City population1,025,5231,463,723
People per km²2,5321,768
Museums within 10 km4077
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34
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 Cologne 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.