VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
The Supertrees, Gardens by the Bay, Singapore
SingaporeThe Supertrees, Gardens by the Bay

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

Rio de Janeiro or Singapore?

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 Singapore for

  • getting around
  • families
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Singapore’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, Singapore 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Singapore 88: Singapore leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Singapore 62: Rio de Janeiro leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Singapore 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Singapore 45: Rio de Janeiro leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Singapore 25: Rio de Janeiro leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Singapore 88: Singapore leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Singapore 92: Singapore leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Singapore 76: Singapore leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Singapore 25: Rio de Janeiro leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Singapore 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Singapore 40: Singapore 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 Singapore.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Singapore
57match

Wins on getting around and families 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

Singapore in July

31 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroSingapore

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. Singapore: 1991-2020 normals, Singapore / Changi Airport (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroSingapore
Official languagePortugueseEnglish, Tamil, Malay, Standard Chinese
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Singapore Dollar (SGD)
SocketsCN60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193Police 999, ambulance 995, fire 995
Elevation31 m21 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsSingapore Changi Airport (SIN)17 km from centre167 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroSingapore
City population6,211,2235,866,139
People per km²4,9308,158
Museums within 10 km6940
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 Singapore 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.