VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Kyoto or Rio de Janeiro?

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
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Rio de Janeiro’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, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Rio de Janeiro 62: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Rio de Janeiro 68: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Rio de Janeiro 50: Kyoto leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Rio de Janeiro 50: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Rio de Janeiro 44: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Rio de Janeiro 50: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Rio de Janeiro 30: Kyoto leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Rio de Janeiro.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
62match

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

Rio de Janeiro in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
45 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

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

Rio de Janeiro has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureKyotoRio de Janeiro
Official languageJapanesePortuguese
CurrencyYen (JPY)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation51 m31 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoRio de Janeiro
City population1,463,7236,211,223
People per km²1,7684,930
Museums within 10 km7769
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km43
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 Rio de Janeiro 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.