VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

Rio de Janeiro or Seoul?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Seoul for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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, Seoul 18: Rio de Janeiro leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Seoul 75: Rio de Janeiro leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Seoul 77: Seoul leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Seoul 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Seoul 63: Rio de Janeiro leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 45 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Seoul.

Your match

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

Rio de Janeiro
62match

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

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on wellness and getting around 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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroSeoul

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. Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroSeoul
Official languagePortugueseKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Won (KRW)
SocketsCN60 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation31 m38 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroSeoul
City population6,211,2239,668,465
People per km²4,93015,973
Museums within 10 km6981
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rio de Janeiro or Seoul 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.