VacationSelector
India Gate behind its flower beds, Delhi
DelhiIndia Gate behind its flower beds
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Delhi by shalender kumar, Pexels License; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Delhi 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 Delhi for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Delhi’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. Delhi 4, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 88 points.
Food & drink. Delhi 84, Rio de Janeiro 62: Delhi leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Delhi 85, Rio de Janeiro 68: Delhi leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Delhi 44, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Delhi 20, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 70 points.
Day trips. Delhi 68, Rio de Janeiro 50: Delhi leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Delhi 32, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Delhi 55, Rio de Janeiro 44: Delhi leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Delhi 78, Rio de Janeiro 50: Delhi leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Delhi 90, Rio de Janeiro 60: Delhi leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Delhi 55, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Delhi 25, Rio de Janeiro 30: Rio de Janeiro leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Delhi and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Delhi
53match

Wins on prices and shopping with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
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.

Delhi in July

36 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
190 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DelhiRio 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. Delhi: 1991-2020 normals, New Delhi / Safdarjung (9.4 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDelhiRio de Janeiro
Official languageHindi, EnglishPortuguese
CurrencyIndian Rupee (INR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-3
Emergency number108 or 112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation221 m31 m
Main airportIndira Gandhi International Airport (DEL)17 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDelhiRio de Janeiro
City population26,495,0006,211,223
People per km²18,9624,930
Museums within 10 km2369
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km43
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 Delhi 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.