VacationSelector
Sugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay, Rio de Janeiro
Rio de JaneiroSugarloaf Mountain above the boats in Botafogo Bay
The British Columbia Parliament Buildings, Victoria
VictoriaThe British Columbia Parliament Buildings

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

Rio de Janeiro or Victoria?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Victoria for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Victoria’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, Victoria 28: Rio de Janeiro leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Rio de Janeiro 62, Victoria 50: Rio de Janeiro leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Rio de Janeiro 68, Victoria 42: Rio de Janeiro leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Rio de Janeiro 80, Victoria 30: Rio de Janeiro leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Rio de Janeiro 90, Victoria 77: Rio de Janeiro leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Rio de Janeiro 50, Victoria 54: Victoria leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Rio de Janeiro 50, Victoria 62: Victoria leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Rio de Janeiro 44, Victoria 60: Victoria leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Rio de Janeiro 50, Victoria 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Rio de Janeiro 60, Victoria 34: Rio de Janeiro leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Rio de Janeiro 66, Victoria 40: Rio de Janeiro leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Rio de Janeiro 30, Victoria 48: Victoria 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 Victoria.

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.

Victoria
47match

Wins on wellness 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

Victoria in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
11 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Rio de JaneiroVictoria

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.

Victoria's sunshine is measured 87 km from the centre, at Vancouver International Airport.

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. Victoria: 1991-2020 normals, Victoria Gonzales CS (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureRio de JaneiroVictoria
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 m23 m
Main airportRio de Janeiro Galeão – Tom Jobim International Airport (GIG)12 km from centre54 non-stop destinationsVictoria International Airport (YYJ)25 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureRio de JaneiroVictoria
City population6,211,22391,867
People per km²4,9304,711
Museums within 10 km696
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 Victoria 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.