VacationSelector
A galleon on the Motława below the old crane, Gdansk
GdanskA galleon on the Motława below the old crane
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Gdansk by Nikater, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Gdansk 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 Gdansk for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • food and drink
  • day trips
  • wellness

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. Gdansk 40, Kyoto 15: Gdansk leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Gdansk 50, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Gdansk 68, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Gdansk 52, Kyoto 35: Gdansk leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Gdansk 58, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Gdansk 62, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Gdansk 62, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Gdansk and Kyoto are level on 72.
Shopping & style. Gdansk 42, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Gdansk 68, Kyoto 50: Gdansk leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Gdansk 52, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Gdansk 36, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Gdansk and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Gdansk
55match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on food and drink 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.

Gdansk in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °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
GdanskKyoto

Where the figures come from

Gdansk 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.

Gdansk's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Elblag.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGdanskKyoto
Official languagePolishJapanese
CurrencyZloty (PLN)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCE50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation11 m51 m
Main airportGdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre72 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureGdanskKyoto
City population487,8341,463,723
People per km²7141,768
Museums within 10 km3477
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24
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 Gdansk 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). 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.