VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

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

Galway 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 Galway for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • food and drink

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. Galway 28, Kyoto 15: Galway leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 63 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Kyoto 35: Galway leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Kyoto 70: Galway leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on nightlife and beaches 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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 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
GalwayKyoto

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayKyoto
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
Elevation25 m51 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayKyoto
City population83,4561,463,723
People per km²1,5631,768
Museums within 10 km477
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 Galway 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.