VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
A cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan, San Juan
San JuanA cobbled street of painted houses in Old San Juan

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; San Juan by Mohan Nannapaneni, Pexels License.

Kyoto or San Juan?

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
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose San Juan for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on San Juan’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 Juan 84: San Juan leads by 69 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, San Juan 66: Kyoto leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, San Juan 64: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, San Juan 70: San Juan leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, San Juan 74: San Juan leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, San Juan 52: Kyoto leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, San Juan 58: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, San Juan 38: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, San Juan 50: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, San Juan 38: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, San Juan 55: Kyoto leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, San Juan 40: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and San Juan.

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 getting around with your weighting.

San Juan
57match

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

San Juan in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
153 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoSan Juan

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 Juan: 1991-2020 normals, San Juan / Int., Puerto Rico (12.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoSan Juan
Official languageJapaneseSpanish, English
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation51 m3 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsLuis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU)12 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoSan Juan
City population1,463,723342,259
People per km²1,7682,847
Museums within 10 km7718
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
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 San Juan 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.