VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Medellin?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Medellin for

  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Medellin’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, Medellin 5: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Medellin 58: Kyoto leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Medellin 42: Kyoto leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Medellin 76: Medellin leads by 41 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Medellin 66: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Medellin 58: Kyoto leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Medellin 50: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Medellin 55: Kyoto leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Medellin 45: Kyoto leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Medellin 80: Medellin leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Medellin 42: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Medellin 30: Kyoto leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Medellin.

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.

Medellin
51match

Wins on nightlife and prices 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

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoMedellin

Where the figures come from

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

Medellin 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). Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoMedellin
Official languageJapaneseSpanish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119123
Elevation51 m1,405 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoMedellin
City population1,463,7232,529,403
People per km²1,7686,644
Museums within 10 km7714
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 Medellin 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.