VacationSelector
Palms on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu
HonoluluPalms on Waikiki Beach
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Honolulu by Jess Loiterton, Pexels License; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Honolulu 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 Honolulu for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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. Honolulu 91, Kyoto 15: Honolulu leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Honolulu 70, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Honolulu 55, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Honolulu 45, Kyoto 35: Honolulu leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Honolulu 88, Kyoto 70: Honolulu leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Honolulu 38, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 58 points.
Good for families. Honolulu 80, Kyoto 68: Honolulu leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Honolulu 52, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Honolulu 60, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Honolulu 15, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Honolulu 40, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Honolulu 50, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Honolulu and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Honolulu
57match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips 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.

Honolulu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °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
HonoluluKyoto

Where the figures come from

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Honolulu: 1991-2020 normals, Honolulu International Airport (10.1 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHonoluluKyoto
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-10UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation12 m51 m
Main airportDaniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL)7 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureHonoluluKyoto
City population350,9641,463,723
People per km²1,9811,768
Museums within 10 km1277
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
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 Honolulu 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). 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.