VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Castel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino, Naples
NaplesCastel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Naples by pietro scerrato, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Naples?

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
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Naples for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Naples’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, Naples 50: Naples leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Naples 83: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Naples 87: Kyoto leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Naples 60: Naples leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Naples 77: Naples leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Kyoto and Naples are level on 96.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Naples 45: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Naples 54: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Naples 60: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Naples 63: Naples leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Naples 66: Naples leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Naples 44: Kyoto leads by 26 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Naples.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Kyoto
66match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Naples
65match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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

Naples in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoNaples

Where the figures come from

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

Naples 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.

Naples's sunshine is measured 28 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Naples: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Napoli / Capodichino (4.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoNaples
Official languageJapaneseItalian
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation51 m17 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)7 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoNaples
City population1,463,723913,462
People per km²1,7687,676
Museums within 10 km7765
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km45
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or Naples 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.