VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The Arctic Cathedral, Tromso
TromsoThe Arctic Cathedral

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Tromso by Moyan Brenn, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Tromso?

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
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Tromso for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Tromso’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, Tromso 8: Kyoto leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Tromso 36: Kyoto leads by 49 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Tromso 27: Kyoto leads by 69 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Tromso 38: Tromso leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Tromso 92: Tromso leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Tromso 14: Kyoto leads by 82 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Tromso 45: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Tromso 60: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Tromso 15: Kyoto leads by 57 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Tromso 11: Kyoto leads by 39 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Tromso 32: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Tromso 38: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Tromso.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tromso
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Tromso in July

16 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
24 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoTromso

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). Tromso: 1991-2020 normals, Tromso (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoTromso
Official languageJapaneseNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyYen (JPY)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
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 119Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation51 m20 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsTromsø Airport (TOS)4 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoTromso
City population1,463,72379,943
People per km²1,76832
Museums within 10 km778
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 Tromso 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.