VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Rio de Janeiro or Vail?

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
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Vail for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Vail’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, Vail 5: Rio de Janeiro leads by 87 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Vail 35: Rio de Janeiro leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Vail 10: Rio de Janeiro leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Vail 30: Rio de Janeiro leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Vail 92: Vail leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Vail 45: Rio de Janeiro leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Vail 55: Vail leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Vail 62: Vail leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Vail 35: Rio de Janeiro leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Vail 5: Rio de Janeiro leads by 55 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Vail 42: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Vail 48: Vail leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Vail.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Vail
39match

Wins on getting around and wellness 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

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroVail

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.

Vail's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Kremmling.

Vail's station stands 186 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Vail 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.

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. Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroVail
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCN60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation31 m2,445 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroVail
City population6,211,2234,835
People per km²4,930400
Museums within 10 km691
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rio de Janeiro or Vail 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.