VacationSelector
Skiers at the foot of the slopes in the village, Copper Mountain
Copper MountainSkiers at the foot of the slopes in the village
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Copper Mountain by SparkFunElectronics, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Copper Mountain 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 Copper Mountain for

  • families
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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. Copper Mountain 3, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 89 points.
Food & drink. Copper Mountain 20, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Copper Mountain 4, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 64 points.
Nightlife. Copper Mountain 12, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 68 points.
Nature & outdoors. Copper Mountain and Rio de Janeiro are level on 90.
Day trips. Copper Mountain 55, Rio de Janeiro 50: Copper Mountain leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Copper Mountain 62, Rio de Janeiro 50: Copper Mountain leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Copper Mountain 48, Rio de Janeiro 44: Copper Mountain leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Copper Mountain 8, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Copper Mountain 18, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Copper Mountain 8, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Copper Mountain 28, Rio de Janeiro 30: Rio de Janeiro leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Copper Mountain and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Copper Mountain
30match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
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.

Copper Mountain in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Rio de Janeiro in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
45 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Copper MountainRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

Copper Mountain's temperatures are measured 35 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Copper Mountain 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.

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. Copper Mountain: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (35.2 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCopper MountainRio de Janeiro
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation2,955 m31 m
Main airportDenver International Airport (DEN)132 km from centre231 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCopper MountainRio de Janeiro
City population6506,211,223
People per km²84,930
Museums within 10 km069
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
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 Copper Mountain or Rio de Janeiro somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.