VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Rio de Janeiro or Stockholm?

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
  • prices
  • nightlife

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • getting around
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’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, Stockholm 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Stockholm 64: Stockholm leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Stockholm 57: Rio de Janeiro leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Stockholm 72: Rio de Janeiro leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Stockholm 68: Stockholm leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Stockholm 30: Rio de Janeiro leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Stockholm 65: Rio de Janeiro leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 26 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Stockholm.

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 prices with your weighting.

Stockholm
64match

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

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroStockholm

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.

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

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. Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroStockholm
Official languagePortugueseSwedish
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsCN60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193112
Elevation31 m22 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroStockholm
City population6,211,223984,748
People per km²4,9305,260
Museums within 10 km69266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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