VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Wilmington?

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
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Wilmington 48: Kyoto leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Wilmington 40: Kyoto leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Wilmington 58: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Wilmington 45: Kyoto leads by 51 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Wilmington 62: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Wilmington 28: Kyoto leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Wilmington 33: Kyoto leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Wilmington 42: Kyoto leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Wilmington 40: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Wilmington 33: Kyoto leads by 37 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Wilmington.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoWilmington

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). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoWilmington
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 m9 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoWilmington
City population1,463,723115,451
People per km²1,768839
Museums within 10 km772
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or Wilmington 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.