VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Santiago?

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
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose Santiago for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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 12: Kyoto leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Santiago 60: Kyoto leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Santiago 52: Kyoto leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Santiago 70: Kyoto leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Santiago 57: Kyoto leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Santiago 68: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Santiago 52: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Santiago 58: Santiago leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Santiago 55: Kyoto leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Santiago 37: Kyoto leads by 33 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Santiago.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Santiago
55match

Wins on nightlife 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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoSantiago

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: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoSantiago
Official languageJapaneseSpanish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation51 m575 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoSantiago
City population1,463,7236,257,516
People per km²1,7687,468
Museums within 10 km7754
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or Santiago 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.