VacationSelector
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Las Vegas 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 Las Vegas for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • wellness

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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. Las Vegas 10, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Las Vegas 68, Rio de Janeiro 62: Las Vegas leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Las Vegas 25, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Las Vegas 88, Rio de Janeiro 80: Las Vegas leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Las Vegas 68, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Las Vegas 25, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Las Vegas 25, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Las Vegas 38, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Las Vegas 64, Rio de Janeiro 50: Las Vegas leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Las Vegas 35, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Las Vegas 78, Rio de Janeiro 66: Las Vegas leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Las Vegas 40, Rio de Janeiro 30: Las Vegas leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches 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.

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No seasea
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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Las VegasRio 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. Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLas VegasRio de Janeiro
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation610 m31 m
Main airportHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLas VegasRio de Janeiro
City population641,9036,211,223
People per km²1,8434,930
Museums within 10 km2169
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
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 Las Vegas 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.