VacationSelector
The Cloth Hall on the Main Square, Krakow
KrakowThe Cloth Hall on the Main Square
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera

Photos: Krakow by Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License.

Krakow 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 Krakow for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose Kyoto for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • 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. Krakow 9, Kyoto 15: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Krakow 55, Kyoto 85: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Krakow 77, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Krakow 68, Kyoto 35: Krakow leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Krakow 62, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Krakow 76, Kyoto 96: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Krakow 58, Kyoto 68: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Krakow 74, Kyoto 72: Krakow leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Krakow 48, Kyoto 72: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Krakow 72, Kyoto 50: Krakow leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Krakow 55, Kyoto 60: Kyoto leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Krakow 36, Kyoto 70: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Krakow and Kyoto.

Your match

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

Krakow
58match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Krakow in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
100 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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
KrakowKyoto

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. Krakow: 1991-2020 normals, Krakow (10.1 km from centre). Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKrakowKyoto
Official languagePolishJapanese
CurrencyZloty (PLN)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCE50 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
Elevation219 m51 m
Main airportKraków John Paul II International Airport (KRK)11 km from centre132 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureKrakowKyoto
City population804,2371,463,723
People per km²2,4591,768
Museums within 10 km11377
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km44
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 Krakow 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.