VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
The statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral, Santo Domingo
Santo DomingoThe statue of Columbus in Parque Colon before the cathedral

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Santo Domingo by Dr. Thomas Liptak, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Rio de Janeiro or Santo Domingo?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Santo Domingo for

  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Santo Domingo’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, Santo Domingo 58: Rio de Janeiro leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Santo Domingo 58: Rio de Janeiro leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Santo Domingo 64: Rio de Janeiro leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Santo Domingo 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Santo Domingo 36: Rio de Janeiro leads by 54 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Santo Domingo 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Santo Domingo 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Santo Domingo 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Santo Domingo 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Santo Domingo 66: Santo Domingo leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Santo Domingo 46: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Santo Domingo 22: Rio de Janeiro leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Santo Domingo.

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 nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

Santo Domingo
49match

Wins on prices 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
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Santo Domingo in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
183 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroSanto Domingo

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.

Santo Domingo has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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. Santo Domingo: 1991-2020 normals, Santo Domingo (6.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroSanto Domingo
Official languagePortugueseSpanish
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Dominican Peso (DOP)
SocketsCN60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-4
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation31 m14 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsLas Américas International Airport (SDQ)28 km from centre40 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroSanto Domingo
City population6,211,2232,201,941
People per km²4,9301,691
Museums within 10 km6910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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