VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Kyoto or Wellington?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Wellington for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’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, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Wellington 62: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Wellington 44: Kyoto leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Wellington 45: Wellington leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Wellington 40: Kyoto leads by 56 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Wellington 62: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Wellington 68: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Wellington 42: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Wellington 33: Kyoto leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Wellington 56: Kyoto leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Wellington 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 Wellington.

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.

Wellington
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

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoWellington

Where the figures come from

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

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoWellington
Official languageJapaneseEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyYen (JPY)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119111
Elevation51 m0 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoWellington
City population1,463,723216,200
People per km²1,768487
Museums within 10 km7712
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 Wellington 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.