VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
San JoseThe Winchester Mystery House

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; San Jose by Roxanna Salceda, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Kyoto or San Jose?

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

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose San Jose for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Jose’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, San Jose 30: San Jose leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, San Jose 56: Kyoto leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, San Jose 36: Kyoto leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, San Jose 33: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, San Jose 72: San Jose leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, San Jose 78: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, San Jose 65: Kyoto leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, San Jose 30: Kyoto leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, San Jose 48: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, San Jose 20: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, San Jose 38: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, San Jose 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 San Jose.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

San Jose
45match

Wins on beaches 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

San Jose in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoSan Jose

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). San Jose: 1991-2020 normals, San Jose / Santa Clara Trailer Village (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoSan Jose
Official languageJapanese-
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation51 m25 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsMineta San Jose International Airport (SJC)8 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoSan Jose
City population1,463,7231,013,240
People per km²1,7682,167
Museums within 10 km7719
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 San Jose 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.