VacationSelector
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Luxor 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 Luxor for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • 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. Luxor 6, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 86 points.
Food & drink. Luxor 30, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Luxor 95, Rio de Janeiro 68: Luxor leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Luxor 10, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 70 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luxor 32, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 58 points.
Day trips. Luxor 62, Rio de Janeiro 50: Luxor leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Luxor 30, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Luxor 35, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Luxor 25, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Luxor 90, Rio de Janeiro 60: Luxor leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luxor 10, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luxor 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: Luxor and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Luxor
38match

Wins on prices and culture and sights 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.

Luxor in July

41 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
0 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
LuxorRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

Luxor has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureLuxorRio de Janeiro
Official languageArabicPortuguese
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation89 m31 m
Main airportLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuxorRio de Janeiro
City population202,2326,211,223
People per km²4864,930
Museums within 10 km469
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 Luxor 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). 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. 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.