VacationSelector
Cinderella Castle, Magic Kingdom, Orlando
OrlandoCinderella Castle, Magic Kingdom
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay

Photos: Orlando by Michael Gray, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped.

Orlando 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 Orlando for

  • families
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Orlando 42, Rio de Janeiro 92: Rio de Janeiro leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Orlando 48, Rio de Janeiro 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Orlando 22, Rio de Janeiro 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Orlando 40, Rio de Janeiro 80: Rio de Janeiro leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orlando 46, Rio de Janeiro 90: Rio de Janeiro leads by 44 points.
Day trips. Orlando 58, Rio de Janeiro 50: Orlando leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Orlando 98, Rio de Janeiro 50: Orlando leads by 48 points.
Getting around. Orlando 8, Rio de Janeiro 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Orlando 58, Rio de Janeiro 50: Orlando leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Orlando 36, Rio de Janeiro 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orlando 40, Rio de Janeiro 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orlando 32, Rio de Janeiro 30: Orlando leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orlando and Rio de Janeiro.

Your match

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

Orlando
44match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Orlando in July

33 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
189 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
OrlandoRio 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. Orlando: 1991-2020 normals, Orlando Airport (14.2 km from centre). Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureOrlandoRio 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
Elevation34 m31 m
Main airportOrlando International Airport (MCO)14 km from centre169 non-stop destinationsRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrlandoRio de Janeiro
City population334,8546,211,223
People per km²1,0864,930
Museums within 10 km1169
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
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 Orlando 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.