VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica
Santa MonicaThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Santa Monica by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Santa Monica?

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
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Santa Monica for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Santa Monica’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 Monica 66: Santa Monica leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Santa Monica 60: Kyoto leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Santa Monica 35: Kyoto leads by 61 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Santa Monica 38: Santa Monica leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Santa Monica 72: Santa Monica leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Santa Monica 64: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Santa Monica 70: Santa Monica leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Santa Monica 52: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Santa Monica 56: Kyoto leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Santa Monica 14: Kyoto leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Santa Monica 38: Kyoto leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Santa Monica 45: Kyoto leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Santa Monica.

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 prices with your weighting.

Santa Monica
51match

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

Santa Monica in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoSanta Monica

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 Monica: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (13.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoSanta Monica
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 m32 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)11 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoSanta Monica
City population1,463,72393,076
People per km²1,7684,270
Museums within 10 km7719
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
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 Santa Monica 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.