VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Kyoto or Phuket?

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
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Phuket for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Phuket’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, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Phuket 66: Kyoto leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Phuket 35: Kyoto leads by 61 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Phuket 45: Kyoto leads by 51 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Phuket 65: Kyoto leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Phuket 22: Kyoto leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Phuket 42: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Phuket 20: Kyoto leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Phuket.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Phuket
57match

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

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoPhuket

Where the figures come from

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

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoPhuket
Official languageJapaneseThai
CurrencyYen (JPY)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation51 m19 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoPhuket
City population1,463,72377,610
People per km²1,7686,468
Museums within 10 km772
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 Phuket 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.