VacationSelector
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Cork 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 Cork for

  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • 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. Cork 25, Kyoto 15: Cork leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Cork 58, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Cork 40, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Cork 40, Kyoto 35: Cork leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cork 62, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Cork 68, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Cork 50, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Cork 58, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Cork 40, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Cork 33, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cork 45, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cork 22, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cork and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Cork
45match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cork in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
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
CorkKyoto

Where the figures come from

Cork's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Kyoto's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Osaka.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cork: 1991-2020 normals, Cork Airport (5.6 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCorkKyoto
Official languageEnglish, IrishJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation0 m51 m
Main airportCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCorkKyoto
City population222,3331,463,723
People per km²5,9611,768
Museums within 10 km577
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
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 Cork 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). 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. 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.