VacationSelector
La Paz
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

La Paz 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 La Paz for

  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • families

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. La Paz 3, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 89 points.
Food & drink. La Paz 50, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. La Paz 52, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. La Paz 38, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. La Paz 82, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
Day trips. La Paz 40, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Good for families. La Paz 10, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 40 points.
Getting around. La Paz 45, Rio de Janeiro 44: La Paz leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. La Paz 45, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 5 points.
Affordability. La Paz 92, Rio de Janeiro 60: La Paz leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. La Paz 35, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. La Paz 12, Rio de Janeiro 30: Rio de Janeiro leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: La Paz and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

La Paz
42match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 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
La PazRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

La Paz 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.

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. La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLa PazRio de Janeiro
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua, GuaraniPortuguese
CurrencyBoliviano (BOB)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAC50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4UTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation3,640 m31 m
Main airportEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLa PazRio de Janeiro
City population755,7326,211,223
People per km²1,6014,930
Museums within 10 km2169
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
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 La Paz or Rio de Janeiro somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.