VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Fishing boats in the harbour, La Spezia
La SpeziaFishing boats in the harbour

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; La Spezia by Irina Balashova, Pexels License.

Kyoto or La Spezia?

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 Kyoto for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose La Spezia for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on La Spezia’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. Kyoto 15, La Spezia 60: La Spezia leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, La Spezia 58: Kyoto leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, La Spezia 40: Kyoto leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, La Spezia 28: Kyoto leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, La Spezia 79: La Spezia leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, La Spezia 87: Kyoto leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, La Spezia 48: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, La Spezia 70: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, La Spezia 35: Kyoto leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Kyoto and La Spezia are level on 50.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, La Spezia 28: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, La Spezia 32: Kyoto leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and La Spezia.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

La Spezia
51match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

La Spezia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
20 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoLa Spezia

Where the figures come from

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

La Spezia's temperatures are measured 65 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

La Spezia 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). La Spezia: 1991-2020 normals, Pisa / S. Giusto (64.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoLa Spezia
Official languageJapaneseItalian
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation51 m3 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsPisa International Airport (PSA)65 km from centre82 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoLa Spezia
City population1,463,72392,119
People per km²1,7681,792
Museums within 10 km7712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or La Spezia somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under 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.