VacationSelector
Haedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea, Busan
BusanHaedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Busan by Andrea De Santis, Pexels License; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Busan 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 Busan for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Busan 68, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Busan 72, Rio de Janeiro 62: Busan leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Busan 52, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Busan 60, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Busan 74, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Busan 74, Rio de Janeiro 50: Busan leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Busan 70, Rio de Janeiro 50: Busan leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Busan 68, Rio de Janeiro 44: Busan leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Busan 60, Rio de Janeiro 50: Busan leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Busan 56, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Busan 42, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Busan 78, Rio de Janeiro 30: Busan leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Busan and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Busan
Best match
65match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
62match

Wins on beaches 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.

Busan in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
352 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BusanRio 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. Busan: 1991-2020 normals, Pusan (9.7 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureBusanRio de Janeiro
Official languageKorean, Korean Sign LanguagePortuguese
CurrencyWon (KRW)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCF220 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 119, fire 119Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation30 m31 m
Main airportGimhae International Airport (PUS)12 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBusanRio de Janeiro
City population3,453,1986,211,223
People per km²4,4864,930
Museums within 10 km769
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Busan 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. 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.