VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
The Limmat from Quaibrücke, Zurich
ZurichThe Limmat from Quaibrücke

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Zurich by Daniel Kraft, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Zurich?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Zurich for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Zurich’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, Zurich 45: Zurich leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Zurich 53: Kyoto leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Zurich 58: Kyoto leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Zurich 62: Zurich leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Zurich 80: Zurich leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Zurich 84: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Zurich 76: Zurich leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Zurich 95: Zurich leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Zurich 66: Kyoto leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Zurich 3: Kyoto leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Zurich 70: Zurich leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Zurich 58: Kyoto leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Zurich.

Your match

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

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Zurich
63match

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

Zurich in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoZurich

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). Zurich: 1991-2020 normals, Zurich Town / Ville. (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoZurich
Official languageJapaneseFrench, German, Italian, Romansh
CurrencyYen (JPY)Swiss Franc (CHF)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCJ230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation51 m408 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsZürich Airport (ZRH)9 km from centre226 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoZurich
City population1,463,723440,935
People per km²1,7685,016
Museums within 10 km7763
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or Zurich 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.