VacationSelector
The golden Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
JerusalemThe golden Dome of the Rock
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Jerusalem by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Jerusalem 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 Jerusalem for

  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • shopping

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. Jerusalem 40, Kyoto 15: Jerusalem leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Jerusalem 66, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Jerusalem 92, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Jerusalem 38, Kyoto 35: Jerusalem leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Jerusalem 60, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Jerusalem 80, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Jerusalem 52, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Jerusalem 55, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Jerusalem 48, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Jerusalem 20, Kyoto 50: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Jerusalem 40, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Jerusalem 42, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Jerusalem and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Jerusalem
53match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on prices 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.

Jerusalem in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 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
JerusalemKyoto

Where the figures come from

Jerusalem 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. Jerusalem: 1991-2020 normals, Jerusalem (1.8 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureJerusalemKyoto
Official languageHebrewJapanese
CurrencyNew Israeli Sheqel (ILS)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCHM230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 100, fire 102Police 110, fire 119
Elevation754 m51 m
Main airportBen Gurion International Airport (TLV)42 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasureJerusalemKyoto
City population1,050,1511,463,723
People per km²8,3741,768
Museums within 10 km6977
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km74
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Jerusalem 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.