VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Plaza de España, Seville
SevillePlaza de España

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Seville by Tibor Kovacs, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Seville?

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

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

Choose Seville for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Seville’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, Seville 18: Seville leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Seville 73: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Seville 82: Kyoto leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Seville 62: Seville leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Seville 52: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Seville 80: Kyoto leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Seville 55: Kyoto leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Kyoto and Seville are level on 72.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Seville 55: Kyoto leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Seville 58: Seville leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Seville 68: Seville leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Seville 40: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Seville.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Seville
60match

Wins on nightlife 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

Seville in July

36 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoSeville

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). Seville: 1991-2020 normals, Sevilla / San Pablo (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoSeville
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 m18 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsSeville Airport (SVQ)9 km from centre96 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoSeville
City population1,463,723689,423
People per km²1,7684,896
Museums within 10 km7724
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
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 Seville 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.