VacationSelector
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon
LyonThe Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière
Minato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock, Yokohama
YokohamaMinato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock

Photos: Lyon by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Yokohama by Yoshio Kohara, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Lyon or Yokohama?

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 Lyon for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Yokohama for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Yokohama’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. Lyon 12, Yokohama 46: Yokohama leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Lyon 84, Yokohama 72: Lyon leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Lyon 77, Yokohama 55: Lyon leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Lyon 58, Yokohama 44: Lyon leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lyon 64, Yokohama 66: Yokohama leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Lyon 77, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Lyon 62, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Lyon 77, Yokohama 87: Yokohama leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Lyon 58, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Lyon 42, Yokohama 55: Yokohama leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lyon 68, Yokohama 56: Lyon leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lyon 40, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lyon and Yokohama.

Your match

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

Lyon
60match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Yokohama
Best match
64match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Lyon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Yokohama in July

28 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
LyonYokohama

Where the figures come from

Yokohama's sunshine is measured 29 km from the centre, at Tokyo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre). Yokohama: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Yokohama (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLyonYokohama
Official languageFrenchJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation160 m24 m
Main airportLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre141 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureLyonYokohama
City population519,1273,757,630
People per km²10,8388,585
Museums within 10 km4338
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lyon or Yokohama somewhere new.

Browse every destination

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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.