VacationSelector
The Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh
EdinburghThe Scott Monument and Princes Street Gardens
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Edinburgh by Carlos Delgado, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Edinburgh 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 Edinburgh for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • prices

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. Edinburgh 22, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Edinburgh 53, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Edinburgh 75, Rio de Janeiro 68: Edinburgh leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Edinburgh 50, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Edinburgh 75, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Edinburgh 75, Rio de Janeiro 50: Edinburgh leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Edinburgh 62, Rio de Janeiro 50: Edinburgh leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Edinburgh 74, Rio de Janeiro 44: Edinburgh leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Edinburgh and Rio de Janeiro are level on 50.
Affordability. Edinburgh 30, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Edinburgh 72, Rio de Janeiro 66: Edinburgh leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Edinburgh 34, Rio de Janeiro 30: Edinburgh leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Edinburgh and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Edinburgh
56match

Wins on getting around 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.

Edinburgh in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
17 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
EdinburghRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

Edinburgh 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.

Edinburgh's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Leuchars.

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. Edinburgh: 1991-2020 normals, Edinburgh Airport (10 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureEdinburghRio de Janeiro
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112 or 999Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation47 m31 m
Main airportEdinburgh Airport (EDI)11 km from centre163 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureEdinburghRio de Janeiro
City population488,0506,211,223
People per km²1,8844,930
Museums within 10 km3269
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Edinburgh 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.