VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Place d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica, Montreal
MontrealPlace d'Armes and Notre-Dame Basilica

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Montreal by Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Montreal?

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

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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

Choose Montreal for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Montreal’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, Montreal 25: Montreal leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Montreal 78: Kyoto leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Montreal 60: Kyoto leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Montreal 75: Montreal leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Montreal 66: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Montreal 55: Kyoto leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Kyoto and Montreal are level on 68.
Getting around. Kyoto and Montreal are level on 72.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Montreal 60: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Montreal 45: Kyoto leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Montreal 76: Montreal leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Montreal 57: Kyoto leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Montreal.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Montreal
61match

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

Montreal in July

27 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
98 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoMontreal

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). Montreal: 1991-2020 normals, Montreal McTavish (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoMontreal
Official languageJapaneseFrench, English
CurrencyYen (JPY)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation51 m31 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsMontreal / Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL)16 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoMontreal
City population1,463,7231,895,211
People per km²1,7683,806
Museums within 10 km7737
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 Montreal 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.