VacationSelector
The Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower, Johannesburg
JohannesburgThe Johannesburg skyline and the Hillbrow Tower
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

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

Johannesburg 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 Johannesburg for

  • prices
  • shopping
  • day trips

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Johannesburg 5, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Johannesburg 58, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Johannesburg 56, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Johannesburg 62, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Johannesburg 55, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Johannesburg 52, Rio de Janeiro 50: Johannesburg leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Johannesburg 42, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Johannesburg 18, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Johannesburg 58, Rio de Janeiro 50: Johannesburg leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Johannesburg 72, Rio de Janeiro 60: Johannesburg leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Johannesburg 55, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Johannesburg 28, Rio de Janeiro 30: Rio de Janeiro leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Johannesburg and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Johannesburg
47match

Wins on prices and shopping 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.

Johannesburg in July

19 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
JohannesburgRio 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. Johannesburg: 2005-2019 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Johannesburg B / Roosevelt Park (7.3 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureJohannesburgRio de Janeiro
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePortuguese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation1,753 m31 m
Main airportO.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB)22 km from centre84 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureJohannesburgRio de Janeiro
City population4,803,2626,211,223
People per km²2,9224,930
Museums within 10 km1469
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 Johannesburg 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.