VacationSelector
The twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas, Guadalajara
GuadalajaraThe twin towers of the cathedral over Plaza de Armas
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

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

Guadalajara 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 Guadalajara for

  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Guadalajara 5, Kyoto 15: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Guadalajara 75, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Guadalajara 62, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Guadalajara 68, Kyoto 35: Guadalajara leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Guadalajara 55, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Guadalajara 66, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Guadalajara 55, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Guadalajara 40, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Guadalajara 60, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Guadalajara 78, Kyoto 50: Guadalajara leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Guadalajara and Kyoto are level on 60.
Wellness & relaxation. Guadalajara 35, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Guadalajara and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Guadalajara
55match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Guadalajara in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
205 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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
GuadalajaraKyoto

Where the figures come from

Guadalajara has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Guadalajara: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGuadalajaraKyoto
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaJapanese
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation1,536 m51 m
Main airportGuadalajara International Airport (GDL)17 km from centre70 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureGuadalajaraKyoto
City population1,385,6211,463,723
People per km²9,5561,768
Museums within 10 km1777
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24
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 Guadalajara or Kyoto somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.