VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Las Vegas?

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
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Las Vegas for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Las Vegas’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, Las Vegas 10: Kyoto leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Las Vegas 68: Kyoto leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Las Vegas 25: Kyoto leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Las Vegas 88: Las Vegas leads by 53 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Las Vegas 68: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Las Vegas 25: Kyoto leads by 71 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Las Vegas 25: Kyoto leads by 43 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Las Vegas 38: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Las Vegas 64: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Las Vegas 35: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Las Vegas 78: Las Vegas leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Las Vegas 40: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Las Vegas.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoLas Vegas

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. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoLas Vegas
Official languageJapanese-
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation51 m610 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoLas Vegas
City population1,463,723641,903
People per km²1,7681,843
Museums within 10 km7721
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or Las Vegas 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. 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.