VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nightlife

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. Hong Kong 50, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, Rio de Janeiro 62: Hong Kong leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, Rio de Janeiro 50: Hong Kong leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, Rio de Janeiro 50: Hong Kong leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, Rio de Janeiro 44: Hong Kong leads by 53 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, Rio de Janeiro 50: Hong Kong leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, Rio de Janeiro 30: Hong Kong leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hong Kong and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
62match

Wins on beaches 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.

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongRio 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. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHong KongRio de Janeiro
Official languageStandard ChinesePortuguese
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-3
Emergency number999Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation7 m31 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongRio de Janeiro
City population7,413,0706,211,223
People per km²-4,930
Museums within 10 km3969
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hong Kong 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.