VacationSelector
The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta
JakartaThe Istiqlal Mosque
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Jakarta by Antonyus Bunjamin, Pexels License; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Jakarta 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 Jakarta for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • wellness

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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. Jakarta 28, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Jakarta 78, Rio de Janeiro 62: Jakarta leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Jakarta 48, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Jakarta 66, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Jakarta 30, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 60 points.
Day trips. Jakarta 45, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Jakarta and Rio de Janeiro are level on 50.
Getting around. Jakarta 36, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Jakarta 64, Rio de Janeiro 50: Jakarta leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Jakarta 80, Rio de Janeiro 60: Jakarta leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Jakarta 42, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Jakarta 46, Rio de Janeiro 30: Jakarta leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Jakarta and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Jakarta
51match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Jakarta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
12 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
JakartaRio 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. Jakarta: 1991-2020 normals, Jakarta / Observatory (1.1 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureJakartaRio de Janeiro
Official languageIndonesianPortuguese
CurrencyRupiah (IDR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCF50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation91 m31 m
Main airportSoekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)20 km from centre89 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureJakartaRio de Janeiro
City population11,135,1916,211,223
People per km²16,8214,930
Museums within 10 km4469
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 Jakarta 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.