VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Havana 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 Havana for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • day trips
  • 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. Havana 64, Kyoto 15: Havana leads by 49 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Kyoto 35: Havana leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 58 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Kyoto 50: Havana leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Kyoto 60: Havana leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Havana
47match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips 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.

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
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
HavanaKyoto

Where the figures come from

Havana 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. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaKyoto
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105Police 110, fire 119
Elevation59 m51 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaKyoto
City population2,492,6181,463,723
People per km²3,4231,768
Museums within 10 km1277
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Havana 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). 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). 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. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. 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.