VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Quito or Riga?

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 Quito for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Riga for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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. Quito 5, Riga 40: Riga leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Riga 52: Quito leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Riga 66: Quito leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Riga 52: Riga leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Riga 55: Quito leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Riga 60: Riga leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Riga 50: Riga leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Riga 68: Riga leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Riga 45: Riga leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Riga 62: Quito leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Riga 65: Riga leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Riga 50: Riga leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and Riga.

Your match

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

Quito
50match

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

Riga
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches 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.

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoRiga

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoRiga
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaLatvian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,850 m6 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoRiga
City population1,763,275588,911
People per km²4,735-
Museums within 10 km1612
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Quito or Riga 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.