VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The cathedral of Santa Marta, Santa Marta
Santa MartaThe cathedral of Santa Marta

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Santa Marta by Oliver H, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Santa Marta?

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
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Santa Marta for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Marta’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, Santa Marta 70: Santa Marta leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Santa Marta 44: Kyoto leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Santa Marta 34: Kyoto leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Santa Marta 50: Santa Marta leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Santa Marta 84: Santa Marta leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Santa Marta 38: Kyoto leads by 58 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Santa Marta 40: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Santa Marta 38: Kyoto leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Santa Marta 27: Kyoto leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Santa Marta 80: Santa Marta leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Santa Marta 17: Kyoto leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Santa Marta 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 Santa Marta.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Santa Marta
46match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Santa Marta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
59 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoSanta Marta

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). Santa Marta: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Marta / Simon Bolivar (11.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoSanta Marta
Official languageJapaneseSpanish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Colombian Peso (COP)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119123
Elevation51 m8 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsSimón Bolívar International Airport (SMR)13 km from centre6 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days19 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoSanta Marta
City population1,463,723505,915
People per km²1,7681,723
Museums within 10 km773
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 Santa Marta 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.