Kyoto or San Diego?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, level with your weighting
Wins on nightlife and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. San Diego leads by 46 points.46
| Kyoto | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 17 | 63 |
| Swim season months | 5 | 1 |
| Beaches 10 km | 0 | 42 |
| Coast distance | 47 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 47 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. Kyoto leads by 21 points.21
| Kyoto | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 84 | 63 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 5,023 | 823 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 22 | 27 |
Museums & heritage. Kyoto leads by 28 points.28
| Kyoto | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 44 |
| Museums within 10 km | 132 | 59 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 51 | 30 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 39 | 51 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 0 |
Nightlife. Kyoto leads by 30 points.30
| Kyoto | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 50 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 3,215 | 615 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 2,363 | 408 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 73 | 66 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 26 | 31 |
Nature & day trips. San Diego leads by 33 points.33
| Kyoto | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 22 | 55 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 2 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 2 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 52 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 308 hectares |
Good for families. San Diego leads by 9 points.9
| Kyoto | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 62 | 40 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 308 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 4 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Kyoto leads by 12 points.12
| Kyoto | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 40 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 79 | 40 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Kyoto leads by 27 points.27
| Kyoto | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 43 |
| Price level global | 62.4 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. San Diego leads by 26 points.26
| Kyoto | San Diego | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 88 |
| Monthly daytime high | 8.6 °C to 32.4 °C | 18.6 °C to 25 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 40 mm to 232 mm | 0 mm to 56 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 9 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Kyoto | San Diego |
|---|---|---|
| TokyoHND, NRT | 1 h 10 m €118-135 ITM · 39 km | 11 h 15 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 10 h 50 m no fares ITM · 39 km | 1 h 30 m €121-158 SAN · 3 km |
| HonoluluHNL | 8 h 25 m no fares ITM · 39 km | 5 h 35 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 13 h 45 m no fares ITM · 39 km | 5 h 15 m €299-455 1 stop SAN · 3 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 12 h 55 m no fares ITM · 39 km | 3 h 55 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 11 h 30 m no fares ITM · 39 km | 50 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| SeattleSEA, BFI | 10 h 10 m no fares ITM · 39 km | 2 h 40 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| AnchorageANC | 7 h 35 m no fares ITM · 39 km | 5 h 20 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 11 h 50 m no fares ITM · 39 km | 11 h 0 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
| VancouverYVR, YDT | 10 h 0 m no fares KIX · 81 km | 2 h 55 m no fares SAN · 3 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Kyoto | San Diego |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Japanese | – |
| Currency | Yen (JPY) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+9 | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | Police 110, fire 119 | 911 |
| Elevation | 51 m | 129 m |
| Main airport | Kansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinations | San Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 16 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Kyoto | San Diego |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,463,723 | 1,386,932 |
| People per km² | 1,768 | 1,438 |
| Museums within 10 km | 76 | 26 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 89 | 44 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 5 months | 1 month |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or San Diego somewhere new.