VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The Tugu monument in the centre of Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta
YogyakartaThe Tugu monument in the centre of Yogyakarta

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Yogyakarta by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Yogyakarta?

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

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • families

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

Choose Yogyakarta for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Yogyakarta’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, Yogyakarta 22: Yogyakarta leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Yogyakarta 62: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Yogyakarta 68: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Yogyakarta 32: Kyoto leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Yogyakarta 72: Yogyakarta leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Yogyakarta 78: Kyoto leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Yogyakarta 40: Kyoto leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Yogyakarta 35: Kyoto leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Yogyakarta 52: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Yogyakarta 92: Yogyakarta leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Yogyakarta 58: Kyoto leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Yogyakarta 50: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Yogyakarta.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Yogyakarta
55match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

Yogyakarta in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
55 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoYogyakarta

Where the figures come from

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

Yogyakarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Yogyakarta: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureKyotoYogyakarta
Official languageJapaneseIndonesian
CurrencyYen (JPY)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCF50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation51 m113 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsYogyakarta International Airport (YIA)39 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoYogyakarta
City population1,463,723422,732
People per km²1,76813,007
Museums within 10 km7738
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km43
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or Yogyakarta 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.