VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Rio de Janeiro or Rome?

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 Rio de Janeiro for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Rio de Janeiro’s own page.

Choose Rome for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Rome’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. Rio de Janeiro 92, Rome 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Rome 82: Rome leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Rome 99: Rome leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Rome 58: Rio de Janeiro leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Rome 58: Rio de Janeiro leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Rome 92: Rome leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro and Rome are level on 50.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Rome 60: Rome leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Rome 72: Rome leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Rome 38: Rio de Janeiro leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Rome 68: Rome leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Rome 40: Rome leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Rome.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Rio de Janeiro
62match

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

Rome
64match

Wins on day trips 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.

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

Rome in July

31 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroRome

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.

Rome's sunshine is measured 31 km from the centre, at Vigna Di Valle.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroRome
Official languagePortugueseItalian
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCN60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193112
Elevation31 m21 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroRome
City population6,211,2232,748,109
People per km²4,9302,135
Museums within 10 km69178
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km37
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rio de Janeiro or Rome somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.