VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Kyoto or New York?

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

  • prices
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose New York for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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 York 50: New York leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, New York 92: New York leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, New York 89: Kyoto leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, New York 97: New York leads by 62 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, New York 55: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, New York 68: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, New York 70: New York leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, New York 82: New York leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, New York 97: New York leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, New York 12: Kyoto leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, New York 99: New York leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, New York 42: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and New York.

Your match

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

Kyoto
66match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

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 York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoNew York

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 York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoNew York
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-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation51 m25 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoNew York
City population1,463,7238,804,190
People per km²1,7687,256
Museums within 10 km77157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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