VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Fes 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 Fes for

  • prices

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • families
  • day trips
  • getting around

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. Fes 5, Kyoto 15: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Fes 62, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Kyoto 35: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Fes 62, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 46 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Kyoto 50: Fes leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes and Kyoto are level on 70.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Fes
49match

Wins on prices with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on families 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.

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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
FesKyoto

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFesKyoto
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightJapanese
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCE50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 110, fire 119
Elevation408 m51 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureFesKyoto
City population1,167,8421,463,723
People per km²3,6501,768
Museums within 10 km277
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
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 Fes 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. 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.

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.