VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • 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. Edinburgh 22, Kyoto 15: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Kyoto 35: Edinburgh leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Kyoto 70: Edinburgh leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Kyoto 72: Edinburgh leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh 50, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Kyoto 60: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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.

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °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
EdinburghKyoto

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghKyoto
Official languageEnglishJapanese
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)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 number112 or 999Police 110, fire 119
Elevation47 m51 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghKyoto
City population488,0501,463,723
People per km²1,8841,768
Museums within 10 km3277
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34
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 Edinburgh 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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.