VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Athens or Sao Paulo?

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 Athens for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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. Athens 70, Sao Paulo 42: Athens leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Sao Paulo 60: Athens leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Sao Paulo 48: Athens leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Sao Paulo 47: Athens leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Sao Paulo 52: Athens leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Sao Paulo 44: Athens leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Sao Paulo 25: Athens leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
58match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AthensSao Paulo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensSao Paulo
Official languageGreekPortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation74 m760 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensSao Paulo
City population643,45211,451,999
People per km²16,4997,519
Museums within 10 km8890
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Athens or Sao Paulo 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). 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. 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.