VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo?

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 Tokyo for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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, Tokyo 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 52 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Tokyo 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 54 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 49 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Tokyo 48: Rio de Janeiro leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 48 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

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.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroTokyo

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. Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroTokyo
Official languagePortugueseJapanese
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCN60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193Police 110, fire 119
Elevation31 m6 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroTokyo
City population6,211,22314,264,798
People per km²4,9306,501
Museums within 10 km69192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

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