VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The old town below the fortress, Salzburg
SalzburgThe old town below the fortress

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Salzburg by Leonhard Niederwimmer, Pexels License.

Kyoto or Salzburg?

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

  • food and drink
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Salzburg for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Salzburg’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, Salzburg 35: Salzburg leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Salzburg 45: Kyoto leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Salzburg 72: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Salzburg 25: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Salzburg 86: Salzburg leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Salzburg 80: Kyoto leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Salzburg 65: Kyoto leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Kyoto and Salzburg are level on 72.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Salzburg 48: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Salzburg 32: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Salzburg 80: Salzburg leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Salzburg 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 Salzburg.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights with your weighting.

Salzburg
58match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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

Salzburg in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoSalzburg

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). Salzburg: 1991-2020 normals, Salzburg (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoSalzburg
Official languageJapaneseGerman, Austrian Sign Language
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation51 m424 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsSalzburg Airport (SZG)3 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoSalzburg
City population1,463,723155,021
People per km²1,7682,360
Museums within 10 km7738
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km43
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 Salzburg 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.