VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Santiago de Compostela?

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

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santiago de Compostela for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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, Santiago de Compostela 32: Santiago de Compostela leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Santiago de Compostela 68: Kyoto leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Santiago de Compostela 70: Kyoto leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Santiago de Compostela 45: Santiago de Compostela leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Santiago de Compostela 62: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Santiago de Compostela 72: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Santiago de Compostela 42: Kyoto leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Santiago de Compostela 70: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Santiago de Compostela 35: Kyoto leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Santiago de Compostela 64: Santiago de Compostela leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Santiago de Compostela 40: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Santiago de Compostela 42: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Santiago de Compostela.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on shopping and wellness with your weighting.

Santiago de Compostela
54match

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

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoSantiago de Compostela

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). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoSantiago de Compostela
Official languageJapaneseSpanish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation51 m260 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoSantiago de Compostela
City population1,463,723100,965
People per km²1,768459
Museums within 10 km776
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
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 Santiago de Compostela 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.