VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Rio de Janeiro by Arne Müseler, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, cropped; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Rio de Janeiro or Valletta?

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

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Valletta for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Rio de Janeiro leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Valletta 55: Rio de Janeiro leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Valletta 46: Rio de Janeiro leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Valletta 56: Rio de Janeiro leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Valletta 58: Valletta leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Valletta 62: Valletta leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Valletta 38: Rio de Janeiro leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Valletta 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Valletta 44: Rio de Janeiro leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Valletta 32: Valletta leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Valletta.

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 nightlife and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Valletta
55match

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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroValletta

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. Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroValletta
Official languagePortugueseEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCN60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193112
Elevation31 m56 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroValletta
City population6,211,2235,197
People per km²4,9306,496
Museums within 10 km6916
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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