VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • 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. Interlaken 30, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 65 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Rio de Janeiro 90: Interlaken leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Rio de Janeiro 50: Interlaken leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Interlaken 72, Rio de Janeiro 50: Interlaken leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Interlaken 80, Rio de Janeiro 44: Interlaken leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 51 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Rio de Janeiro 30: Interlaken leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

Interlaken 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.

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. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenRio de Janeiro
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshPortuguese
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation571 m31 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenRio de Janeiro
City population6,1236,211,223
People per km²1,4244,930
Museums within 10 km369
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
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 Interlaken 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.