VacationSelector
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Budapest by Perituss, CC0; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Budapest or Rio de Janeiro?

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 Budapest for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Rio de Janeiro’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. Budapest 25, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. Budapest 63, Rio de Janeiro 62: Budapest leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Budapest 80, Rio de Janeiro 68: Budapest leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Budapest 78, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Budapest 58, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Budapest 68, Rio de Janeiro 50: Budapest leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Budapest 62, Rio de Janeiro 50: Budapest leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Budapest 78, Rio de Janeiro 44: Budapest leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Budapest 55, Rio de Janeiro 50: Budapest leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Budapest 62, Rio de Janeiro 60: Budapest leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Budapest 76, Rio de Janeiro 66: Budapest leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Budapest 98, Rio de Janeiro 30: Budapest leads by 68 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Budapest and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Budapest
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
62match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Rio de Janeiro in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
45 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BudapestRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

Rio de Janeiro 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. Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBudapestRio de Janeiro
Official languageHungarianPortuguese
CurrencyForint (HUF)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation117 m31 m
Main airportBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBudapestRio de Janeiro
City population1,675,7776,211,223
People per km²3,1914,930
Museums within 10 km8169
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Budapest or Rio de Janeiro 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.