VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Tampa?

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
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Tampa for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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, Tampa 70: Tampa leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Tampa 57: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Tampa 42: Kyoto leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Tampa 52: Tampa leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Tampa 55: Kyoto leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Tampa 54: Kyoto leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Tampa 22: Kyoto leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Tampa 40: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Tampa 40: Kyoto leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Tampa 47: Kyoto leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Tampa 30: Kyoto leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Tampa.

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 getting around with your weighting.

Tampa
49match

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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoTampa

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). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoTampa
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-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation51 m30 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoTampa
City population1,463,723384,959
People per km²1,768848
Museums within 10 km776
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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