VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

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

Ghent 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 Ghent for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • getting around

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Ghent 25, Kyoto 15: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Kyoto 35: Ghent leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Kyoto 72: Ghent leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent and Kyoto are level on 60.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 37 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Ghent
54match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °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
GhentKyoto

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentKyoto
Official languageFrench, German, DutchJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 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
Elevation12 m51 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentKyoto
City population272,6571,463,723
People per km²1,7281,768
Museums within 10 km3077
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km54
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 Ghent or Kyoto somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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.