VacationSelector
The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, Muscat
MuscatThe Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Muscat by Alli Khalil, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Muscat 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 Muscat for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

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. Muscat 72, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Muscat 44, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Muscat 55, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Muscat 14, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 66 points.
Nature & outdoors. Muscat 70, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Muscat 62, Rio de Janeiro 50: Muscat leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Muscat 52, Rio de Janeiro 50: Muscat leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Muscat 20, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Muscat 42, Rio de Janeiro 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Muscat 45, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Muscat 40, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Muscat 55, Rio de Janeiro 30: Muscat leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Muscat and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Muscat
48match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Muscat in July

33 °Cdaytime high
30 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
31 °Csea
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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MuscatRio de Janeiro

Where the figures come from

Muscat's sunshine is measured 32 km from the centre, at Seeb, International Airport.

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. Muscat: 1991-2020 normals, Qaboos Port (3.4 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureMuscatRio de Janeiro
Official languageArabicPortuguese
CurrencyRial Omani (OMR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCG240 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC-3
Emergency number968Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation69 m31 m
Main airportMuscat International Airport (MCT)31 km from centre83 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

MeasureMuscatRio de Janeiro
City population1,421,4096,211,223
People per km²4064,930
Museums within 10 km1069
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Muscat 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.