VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Madrid 5, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Rio de Janeiro 62: Madrid leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Rio de Janeiro 68: Madrid leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Rio de Janeiro 80: Madrid leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Rio de Janeiro 50: Madrid leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Rio de Janeiro 50: Madrid leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Rio de Janeiro 44: Madrid leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Rio de Janeiro 50: Madrid leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Rio de Janeiro 66: Madrid leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Rio de Janeiro 30: Madrid leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
62match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MadridRio 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. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMadridRio de Janeiro
Official languageSpanishPortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation663 m31 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 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

MeasureMadridRio de Janeiro
City population3,506,7306,211,223
People per km²5,8014,930
Museums within 10 km8869
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 Madrid 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.