VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Hurghada 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 Hurghada for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Hurghada 84, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Rio de Janeiro 50: Hurghada leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Rio de Janeiro 60: Hurghada leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada 44, Rio de Janeiro 30: Hurghada leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Hurghada
43match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hurghada in July

37 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Rio de Janeiro in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
45 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaRio 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. Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaRio de Janeiro
Official languageArabicPortuguese
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation11 m31 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaRio de Janeiro
City population214,2476,211,223
People per km²-4,930
Museums within 10 km169
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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