VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
El Castillo above the beach at Tulum, Tulum
TulumEl Castillo above the beach at Tulum

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Tulum by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Rio de Janeiro or Tulum?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Tulum for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Tulum’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, Tulum 88: Rio de Janeiro leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Tulum 52: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Tulum 30: Rio de Janeiro leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Tulum 60: Rio de Janeiro leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Tulum 76: Rio de Janeiro leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Tulum 68: Tulum leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Tulum 60: Tulum leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Tulum 25: Rio de Janeiro leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Tulum 35: Rio de Janeiro leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Tulum 30: Rio de Janeiro leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Tulum 15: Rio de Janeiro leads by 51 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Tulum 85: Tulum leads by 55 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Tulum.

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 live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tulum
52match

Wins on wellness and day trips 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
22 °Csea
11 hdaylight a day

Tulum in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroTulum

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.

Tulum 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. Tulum: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroTulum
Official languagePortugueseSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Mexican Peso (MXN)
SocketsCN60 HzAB127 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation31 m5 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsFelipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport Tulum (TQO)21 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroTulum
City population6,211,22333,374
People per km²4,930-
Museums within 10 km690
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Tulum 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.