VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Luang Prabang 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 Luang Prabang for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Luang Prabang 14, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 72 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang 50, Rio de Janeiro 44: Luang Prabang leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Rio de Janeiro 60: Luang Prabang leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 48 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Rio de Janeiro 30: Luang Prabang leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Luang Prabang
43match

Wins on wellness and prices 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.

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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
Luang PrabangRio 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. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangRio de Janeiro
Official languageLaoPortuguese
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation305 m31 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 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

MeasureLuang PrabangRio de Janeiro
City population53,7926,211,223
People per km²-4,930
Museums within 10 km069
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 Luang Prabang 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.