VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

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

London 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 London for

  • shopping
  • getting around
  • day trips

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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. London 25, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 67 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Rio de Janeiro 62: London leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Rio de Janeiro 68: London leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Rio de Janeiro 80: London leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 33 points.
Day trips. London 90, Rio de Janeiro 50: London leads by 40 points.
Good for families. London 82, Rio de Janeiro 50: London leads by 32 points.
Getting around. London 85, Rio de Janeiro 44: London leads by 41 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Rio de Janeiro 50: London leads by 45 points.
Affordability. London 15, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Rio de Janeiro 66: London leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Rio de Janeiro 30: London leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: London and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

Wins on shopping and getting around with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
62match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
LondonRio 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. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLondonRio de Janeiro
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112 or 999Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation4 m31 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonRio de Janeiro
City population8,799,7286,211,223
People per km²5,5984,930
Museums within 10 km21669
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km43
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 London 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.