VacationSelector
The Cathedral of Sant'Agata, Catania
CataniaThe Cathedral of Sant'Agata
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Catania by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Catania 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 Catania for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • getting around

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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. Catania 72, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Catania 77, Rio de Janeiro 62: Catania leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Catania 62, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Catania 60, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Catania 83, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Catania 84, Rio de Janeiro 50: Catania leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Catania and Rio de Janeiro are level on 50.
Getting around. Catania 48, Rio de Janeiro 44: Catania leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Catania 42, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Catania and Rio de Janeiro are level on 60.
Live music & performing arts. Catania 55, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Catania and Rio de Janeiro are level on 30.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Catania and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Catania
60match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
62match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Catania in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CataniaRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

Catania's sunshine is measured 88 km from the centre, at Messina.

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. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Fontanarossa (5.2 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCataniaRio de Janeiro
Official languageItalianPortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation7 m31 m
Main airportCatania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre96 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

MeasureCataniaRio de Janeiro
City population311,5846,211,223
People per km²1,7044,930
Museums within 10 km2569
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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