VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Quito?

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
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Quito for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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, Quito 5: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Quito 54: Kyoto leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Quito 77: Kyoto leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Quito 40: Quito leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Quito 86: Quito leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Quito 55: Kyoto leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Quito 32: Kyoto leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Quito 45: Kyoto leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Quito 40: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Quito 78: Quito leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Quito 38: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Quito 44: Kyoto leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Quito.

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 families with your weighting.

Quito
50match

Wins on prices 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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoQuito

Where the figures come from

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

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoQuito
Official languageJapaneseSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation51 m2,850 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoQuito
City population1,463,7231,763,275
People per km²1,7684,735
Museums within 10 km7716
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
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 Quito 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.