VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Ghent or Sao Paulo?

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 Ghent for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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. Ghent 25, Sao Paulo 42: Sao Paulo leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Sao Paulo 60: Ghent leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Sao Paulo 48: Sao Paulo leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Sao Paulo 47: Ghent leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Sao Paulo 52: Sao Paulo leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Sao Paulo 44: Ghent leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Sao Paulo 25: Ghent leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Ghent
54match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
GhentSao Paulo

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentSao Paulo
Official languageFrench, German, DutchPortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation12 m760 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentSao Paulo
City population272,65711,451,999
People per km²1,7287,519
Museums within 10 km3090
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Sao Paulo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. 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.