VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Riga?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Riga for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Riga leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Riga 52: Kyoto leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Riga 66: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Riga 52: Riga leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Riga 55: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Riga 60: Kyoto leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Riga 50: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Riga 68: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Riga 45: Kyoto leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Riga 62: Riga leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Riga 65: Riga leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Riga 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 Riga.

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.

Riga
55match

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

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoRiga

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). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoRiga
Official languageJapaneseLatvian
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation51 m6 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoRiga
City population1,463,723588,911
People per km²1,768-
Museums within 10 km7712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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