VacationSelector
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Dublin 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 Dublin for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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. Dublin 27, Kyoto 15: Dublin leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Dublin 50, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Dublin 64, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Dublin 62, Kyoto 35: Dublin leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dublin and Kyoto are level on 70.
Day trips. Dublin 72, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Dublin 57, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Dublin 66, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Dublin 54, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Dublin 20, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dublin 65, Kyoto 60: Dublin leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dublin 25, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 45 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dublin and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Dublin
53match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 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
DublinKyoto

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. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDublinKyoto
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
Elevation20 m51 m
Main airportDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureDublinKyoto
City population592,7131,463,723
People per km²5,1541,768
Museums within 10 km4077
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
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 Dublin 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.