VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Faro 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 Faro for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • 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. Faro 74, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Rio de Janeiro 50: Faro leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Rio de Janeiro 50: Faro leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Rio de Janeiro 44: Faro leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Faro and Rio de Janeiro are level on 60.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Rio de Janeiro 30: Faro leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Faro
49match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
FaroRio 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. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureFaroRio de Janeiro
Official languagePortuguesePortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation10 m31 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroRio de Janeiro
City population64,5606,211,223
People per km²3194,930
Museums within 10 km269
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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