VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi, New Orleans
New OrleansThe steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; New Orleans by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Kyoto or New Orleans?

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
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose New Orleans for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on New Orleans’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, New Orleans 14: Kyoto leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, New Orleans 84: Kyoto leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, New Orleans 67: Kyoto leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, New Orleans 85: New Orleans leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, New Orleans 42: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, New Orleans 52: Kyoto leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, New Orleans 55: Kyoto leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, New Orleans 55: Kyoto leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, New Orleans 54: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, New Orleans 40: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, New Orleans 80: New Orleans leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, New Orleans 25: Kyoto leads by 45 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and New Orleans.

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 day trips with your weighting.

New Orleans
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

New Orleans in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
169 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoNew Orleans

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). New Orleans: 1991-2020 normals, New Orleans Airport (2.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoNew Orleans
Official languageJapanese-
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation51 m-2 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsLouis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)18 km from centre51 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoNew Orleans
City population1,463,723383,997
People per km²1,768423
Museums within 10 km7716
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months7 months

Where else could you go?

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