VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Colombo 55, Kyoto 15: Colombo leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Colombo and Kyoto are level on 35.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Kyoto 50: Colombo leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on beaches and prices 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.

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboKyoto

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboKyoto
Official languageTamil, SinhalaJapanese
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 110, fire 119
Elevation1 m51 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboKyoto
City population647,5571,463,723
People per km²17,3611,768
Museums within 10 km1077
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.