VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

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

Rio de Janeiro or Thessaloniki?

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
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Rio de Janeiro leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Thessaloniki 76: Rio de Janeiro leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Thessaloniki 66: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro and Thessaloniki are level on 50.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro and Thessaloniki are level on 50.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Thessaloniki 52: Rio de Janeiro leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Thessaloniki 33: Thessaloniki leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Thessaloniki.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Rio de Janeiro
62match

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

Thessaloniki
61match

Wins on day trips 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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroThessaloniki

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. Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroThessaloniki
Official languagePortugueseGreek
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCN60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193112
Elevation31 m6 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroThessaloniki
City population6,211,223309,617
People per km²4,93016,042
Museums within 10 km6932
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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