VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro, Paris
ParisThe Eiffel Tower from the Trocadéro

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Paris by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Kyoto or Paris?

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
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Paris for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Paris’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, Paris 9: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Paris 96: Paris leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Paris 97: Paris leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Paris 80: Paris leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Paris 52: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Paris 92: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Paris 79: Paris leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Paris 88: Paris leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Paris 98: Paris leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Paris 25: Kyoto leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Paris 88: Paris leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Paris 40: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Paris.

Your match

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

Kyoto
66match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Paris
Best match
70match

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

Paris in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoParis

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). Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoParis
Official languageJapaneseFrench
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation51 m27 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsCharles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoParis
City population1,463,7232,103,778
People per km²1,76819,960
Museums within 10 km77251
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km44
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

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