VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls, Ocho Rios
Ocho RiosThe limestone terraces of Dunn's River Falls

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Ocho Rios by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Ocho Rios?

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

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Ocho Rios for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocho Rios’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, Ocho Rios 78: Ocho Rios leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Ocho Rios 42: Kyoto leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Ocho Rios 16: Kyoto leads by 80 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Ocho Rios 28: Kyoto leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Ocho Rios 72: Ocho Rios leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Ocho Rios 56: Kyoto leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Ocho Rios 60: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Ocho Rios 24: Kyoto leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Ocho Rios 26: Kyoto leads by 46 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Ocho Rios 42: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Ocho Rios 14: Kyoto leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Ocho Rios 50: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Ocho Rios.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Ocho Rios
42match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

Ocho Rios in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoOcho Rios

Where the figures come from

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

Ocho Rios's temperatures are measured 62 km from the centre, at Kingston / Norman Manley.

Ocho Rios 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Ocho Rios: 1991-2020 normals, Kingston / Norman Manley (61.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoOcho Rios
Official languageJapaneseEnglish, Jamaican Patois
CurrencyYen (JPY)Jamaican Dollar (JMD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB116 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119Police 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation51 m59 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsSangster International Airport (MBJ)86 km from centre48 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoOcho Rios
City population1,463,72316,671
People per km²1,768-
Museums within 10 km770
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 Ocho Rios 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.