VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Manchester?

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

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Manchester for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Manchester’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, Manchester 9: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Manchester 51: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Manchester 50: Kyoto leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Manchester 72: Manchester leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Manchester 64: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Manchester 77: Kyoto leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Manchester 58: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Manchester 68: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Manchester 62: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Manchester 42: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Manchester 74: Manchester leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Manchester 15: Kyoto leads by 55 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Manchester.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Manchester
54match

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

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoManchester

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). Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoManchester
Official languageJapaneseEnglish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112 or 999
Elevation51 m38 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoManchester
City population1,463,723547,627
People per km²1,7684,737
Museums within 10 km7728
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or Manchester 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.