VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

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

Rio de Janeiro or Santiago?

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
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Santiago for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Rio de Janeiro leads by 80 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Santiago 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Santiago 52: Rio de Janeiro leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Santiago 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Santiago 83: Rio de Janeiro leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Santiago 70: Santiago leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Santiago 57: Santiago leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Santiago 68: Santiago leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Santiago 52: Santiago leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Santiago 58: Rio de Janeiro leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Santiago 55: Rio de Janeiro leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Santiago 37: Santiago leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Santiago.

Your match

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

Rio de Janeiro
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Santiago
55match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroSantiago

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. Rio de Janeiro: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroSantiago
Official languagePortugueseSpanish
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsCN60 HzCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation31 m575 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroSantiago
City population6,211,2236,257,516
People per km²4,9307,468
Museums within 10 km6954
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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