VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

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

Fes 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 Fes for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • shopping

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Fes 5, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Fes and Rio de Janeiro are level on 62.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Rio de Janeiro 68: Fes leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 68 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Fes 62, Rio de Janeiro 50: Fes leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Rio de Janeiro 50: Fes leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Rio de Janeiro 60: Fes leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 34 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Rio de Janeiro 30: Fes leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Fes
49match

Wins on wellness and prices 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.

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 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
FesRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

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. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureFesRio de Janeiro
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightPortuguese
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCE50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation408 m31 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureFesRio de Janeiro
City population1,167,8426,211,223
People per km²3,6504,930
Museums within 10 km269
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
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 Fes 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). 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. 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.