VacationSelector
The skyline and the Rocky Mountains over City Park and Ferril Lake, Denver
DenverThe skyline and the Rocky Mountains over City Park and Ferril Lake
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Denver by Zenhaus, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Denver 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 Denver for

  • families
  • wellness
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Denver’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. Denver 5, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Denver 54, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Denver 44, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Denver 47, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Denver 84, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Denver 57, Rio de Janeiro 50: Denver leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Denver 67, Rio de Janeiro 50: Denver leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Denver 40, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Denver 44, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Denver 36, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Denver and Rio de Janeiro are level on 66.
Wellness & relaxation. Denver 40, Rio de Janeiro 30: Denver leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Denver and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Denver
49match

Wins on families and wellness 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.

Denver in July

32 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
55 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DenverRio 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. Denver: 1991-2020 normals, Denver / Stapleton International, Co. (11.2 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDenverRio 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
Elevation1,609 m31 m
Main airportDenver International Airport (DEN)30 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

MeasureDenverRio de Janeiro
City population715,5226,211,223
People per km²1,7834,930
Museums within 10 km2669
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 Denver 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.