VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Muscat?

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

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Muscat for

  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Muscat’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, Muscat 72: Muscat leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Muscat 44: Kyoto leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Muscat 55: Kyoto leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Muscat 14: Kyoto leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto and Muscat are level on 70.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Muscat 62: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Muscat 52: Kyoto leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Muscat 20: Kyoto leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Muscat 42: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Muscat 45: Kyoto leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Muscat 40: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Muscat 55: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Muscat.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

Muscat
48match

Wins on beaches 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

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoMuscat

Where the figures come from

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

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoMuscat
Official languageJapaneseArabic
CurrencyYen (JPY)Rial Omani (OMR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+4
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119968
Elevation51 m69 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoMuscat
City population1,463,7231,421,409
People per km²1,768406
Museums within 10 km7710
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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