VacationSelector
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Tokyo or York?

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 Tokyo for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • nightlife

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

Choose York for

York does not lead in any category we score.

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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. Tokyo 40, York 14: Tokyo leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Tokyo 98, York 42: Tokyo leads by 56 points.
Culture & sights. Tokyo 84, York 70: Tokyo leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Tokyo 86, York 36: Tokyo leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tokyo 68, York 62: Tokyo leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Tokyo 85, York 80: Tokyo leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Tokyo 95, York 60: Tokyo leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Tokyo 98, York 72: Tokyo leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Tokyo 99, York 46: Tokyo leads by 53 points.
Affordability. Tokyo 48, York 38: Tokyo leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tokyo 86, York 38: Tokyo leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tokyo 78, York 34: Tokyo leads by 44 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tokyo and York.

Your match

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

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

York
49match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TokyoYork

Where the figures come from

York has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTokyoYork
Official languageJapaneseEnglish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112 or 999
Elevation6 m25 m
Main airportTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureTokyoYork
City population14,264,798208,400
People per km²6,501766
Museums within 10 km19224
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tokyo or York 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.