VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

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

Rio de Janeiro or Vancouver?

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
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Vancouver for

  • getting around
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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, Vancouver 42: Rio de Janeiro leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Vancouver 42: Rio de Janeiro leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Vancouver 42: Rio de Janeiro leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Vancouver 45: Rio de Janeiro leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 29 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Vancouver 55: Vancouver leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Vancouver 27: Rio de Janeiro leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Vancouver 52: Rio de Janeiro leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Vancouver 50: Vancouver leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Rio de Janeiro and Vancouver.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Vancouver
56match

Wins on getting around and families 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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroVancouver

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. Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroVancouver
Official languagePortugueseFrench, English
CurrencyBrazilian Real (BRL)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsCN60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 190, ambulance 192, fire 193911
Elevation31 m2 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroVancouver
City population6,211,223662,248
People per km²4,9305,759
Museums within 10 km6926
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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