VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

New York 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 New York for

  • shopping
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • 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. New York 50, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, Rio de Janeiro 62: New York leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, Rio de Janeiro 68: New York leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, Rio de Janeiro 80: New York leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 35 points.
Day trips. New York 68, Rio de Janeiro 50: New York leads by 18 points.
Good for families. New York 70, Rio de Janeiro 50: New York leads by 20 points.
Getting around. New York 82, Rio de Janeiro 44: New York leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, Rio de Janeiro 50: New York leads by 47 points.
Affordability. New York 12, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, Rio de Janeiro 66: New York leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 42, Rio de Janeiro 30: New York leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New York and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on shopping and getting around with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
62match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
15 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
New YorkRio 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. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkRio de Janeiro
Official language-Portuguese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation25 m31 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkRio de Janeiro
City population8,804,1906,211,223
People per km²7,2564,930
Museums within 10 km15769
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New York 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). 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. 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.