VacationSelector

Cusco or Kyoto?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
Cusco

Photo: Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
Kyoto

Photo: Bert Mulder, Pexels License

Your match

Cusco
49
match

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

Kyoto
✓ Best match
66
match

Wins on families and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

CuscoKyoto
Beaches & swimming. Kyoto leads by 12 points.12
Food & drink. Kyoto leads by 29 points.29
Culture & sights. Kyoto leads by 15 points.15
Nightlife. Cusco leads by 7 points.7
Nature & outdoors. Cusco leads by 16 points.16
Day trips. Kyoto leads by 18 points.18
Good for families. Kyoto leads by 58 points.58
Getting around. Kyoto leads by 24 points.24
Shopping & style. Kyoto leads by 20 points.20
Affordability. Cusco leads by 23 points.23
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto leads by 30 points.30
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto leads by 37 points.37
0255075100

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

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyCuscoKyoto
Daytime high20 °C31 °C
Night-time low1 °C23 °C
Rainfall in the month5 mm225 mm
SunshineNo figure6 hours a day
Sea temperatureNo sea25 °C
Daylight11 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Cusco
20
19
20
20
21
21
20
21
21
21
22
20
Kyoto
9
9
13
20
24
27
31
32
28
22
17
11
Sea temperature, °C
Cusco
No coastline within reach
Kyoto
14
13
13
15
18
21
25
27
26
23
20
17
Rainfall, mm
Cusco
159
133
106
36
7
3
5
6
17
50
78
127
Kyoto
47
67
112
150
147
232
225
149
215
108
68
40
Daylight, hours per day
Cusco
13
13
12
12
12
11
11
12
12
12
13
13
Kyoto
10
11
12
13
14
15
14
14
12
11
10
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Cusco
No sunshine record
Kyoto
5
5
6
6
7
5
6
7
5
5
5
5

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler 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. Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Before you go

MeasureCuscoKyoto
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaJapanese
CurrencySol (PEN)Yen (JPY)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+9
Emergency number111 or 911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation3,399 m51 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoKyoto
City population428,4501,463,723
People per km²-1,768
Museums within 10 km1176
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24
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 Cusco 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.