VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Château Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace, Quebec City
Quebec CityChâteau Frontenac from Dufferin Terrace

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Quebec City by Jeangagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Quebec City?

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

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Quebec City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Quebec City’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, Quebec City 18: Quebec City leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Quebec City 57: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Quebec City 70: Kyoto leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Quebec City 42: Quebec City leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Quebec City 79: Quebec City leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Quebec City 58: Kyoto leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Quebec City 64: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Quebec City 50: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Quebec City 45: Kyoto leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Quebec City 45: Kyoto leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Quebec City 52: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Quebec City 55: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Quebec City.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Quebec City
53match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Quebec City in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoQuebec City

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). Quebec City: 1991-2020 normals, Beauport (3.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoQuebec City
Official languageJapaneseFrench, English
CurrencyYen (JPY)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
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 m98 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsQuebec Jean Lesage International Airport (YQB)13 km from centre34 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoQuebec City
City population1,463,723574,482
People per km²1,7681,184
Museums within 10 km7716
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
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 Quebec City 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.