VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Bell Rock outside Sedona, Sedona
SedonaBell Rock outside Sedona

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Sedona by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Sedona?

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
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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

Choose Sedona for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Sedona’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, Sedona 16: Sedona leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Sedona 33: Kyoto leads by 52 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Sedona 20: Kyoto leads by 76 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Sedona 8: Kyoto leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Sedona 93: Sedona leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Sedona 55: Kyoto leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Sedona 42: Kyoto leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Sedona 22: Kyoto leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Sedona 34: Kyoto leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Sedona 18: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Sedona 13: Kyoto leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Sedona 82: Sedona leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Sedona.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Sedona
36match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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

Sedona in July

34 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
51 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoSedona

Where the figures come from

Kyoto's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Osaka.

Sedona's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Sedona has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Sedona: 2009-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sedona / West Sedona (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoSedona
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-7
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation51 m1,319 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)160 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoSedona
City population1,463,7239,684
People per km²1,768195
Museums within 10 km770
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 Sedona 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.