VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Stockholm?

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

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’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, Stockholm 40: Stockholm leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Stockholm 64: Kyoto leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Stockholm 77: Kyoto leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Stockholm 57: Stockholm leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Stockholm 72: Stockholm leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Stockholm 68: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Stockholm 70: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Stockholm 30: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Stockholm 65: Stockholm leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Stockholm 56: Kyoto leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Stockholm.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Kyoto
66match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Stockholm
64match

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

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoStockholm

Where the figures come from

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

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoStockholm
Official languageJapaneseSwedish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Swedish Krona (SEK)
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 m22 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoStockholm
City population1,463,723984,748
People per km²1,7685,260
Museums within 10 km77266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km43
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 Stockholm 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.